Romance in Peril
by luvssaintbernards
Summary: Takes place in Freeza saga. When searching for the Dragonballs, Vegeta meets Bulma. Bulma falls instantly in love and seeks him out, but can this love survive? Can Vegeta conduct a love affair under Freeza? R and R
1. Vegeta's Horrible Life

Yo! It's luvssaintbernards again with another romance story! (It's the one I suggested at the end of one of the chapters in the story I'm writing for my sister.) This one might have a little bit of humor, but not much, mostly just romance, suspense, and drama. It'll have a little bit of abuse and things in it, but other than that it won't be too bad writing it on my part. In this story, though, there's a lot of things different from the show, such as Vegeta hasn't rebelled against Freeza yet when he meets Bulma and asks for her Dragonball, Nappa never existed, either. This is like-the only story I ever really planned out, meaning it'll probably turn out to be the best. Anyway, enjoy it please! I don't mind flames as long as they're CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM, AND NO HEARTLESS CRITICISM. If I think you're criticism is heartless, you can expect to be getting a 'heartless' email from me, because I don't take to that crap. If you have a mean review that has criticism in it, keep it to yourself please! Well, once again, Enjoy!  
  
-Luv, luvssaintbernards.  
  
Chapter the first  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z or any other trademarked materials in this fanfiction.  
  
*No, not again, there just HAS to be more to life than this! There just has to be more to life than making ONE mistake and then getting beat for it! * Vegeta thought, as he got slapped across the face so hard he went staggering back into the wall. But there was something good about this. He'd been going through it for twenty years now, twenty years of just saying the wrong thing and getting beat, or when Freeza just felt like beating him, and he was used to it.  
  
He didn't know why he didn't defend himself from it all now that he was thirty instead of a little boy of ten, but he didn't, because he was afraid of the extraterrestrial named Freeza. Even though he didn't have a father to have to look out for anymore, he was still afraid and he didn't know why.  
  
"I'm sorry, I'm REALLY sorry, Master Freeza . . ." Vegeta squeaked, rubbing a hand across the cheek he had been slapped in, "But I couldn't find the Dragonballs! We need to make some kind of equipment that can help us to locate them-"  
  
"ENOUGH OF YOUR DRIBBLE! You know that you could have tried harder, and at least found one of these Earth Dragonballs! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" Freeza scolded, slapping him across the other cheek and sending it on fire.  
  
Vegeta howled with pain. "Stop that!" He growled, losing control of his anger and temper. That had been one of his most dire mistakes as child and adult, it was that temper. One shot off at Freeza and he'd get it, sometimes getting rationed of food for a week. He clasped his hand to his cheek. "I mean . . . please . . . stop that, master." He grumbled. *Why should I be subjected to this? I'm the PRINCE OF ALL SAIYANS, and I used to be admired, and now this-Oh, curse the meteor that destroyed my planet! *  
  
Freeza was just staring at him, with a menacing glare that made Vegeta know just what would happen.  
  
"Don't put me on ration." Vegeta growled. "DON'T, or I'll KILL you, I've had enough of this! You can't just beat the hell out of me, and let your little subjects do it! I'm the Prince, and I have my dignity!"  
  
Freeza started to laugh at Vegeta. "You're no Prince anymore. You're the Prince of a race that has been dead for twenty years." He cackled. "And I suggest you get out there and get to work on finding those Dragonballs, or I'll put you on ration for a month! But for now, just three days without food or water. Maybe you'll learn not to speak to me that way."  
  
Vegeta had to try extremely hard to keep himself from trying to strangle Freeza. Instead he just rubbed both of his stinging and burning cheeks. "Whatever." He grumped. He turned to walk out.  
  
"Vegeta, If I were you I'd think long and hard about staying out ALL night to find at least a Dragonball, because if you come back to this ship with no Dragonballs by tomorrow at twelve, and I have to come looking for you, than I'm going to beat you within an inch of your life, and you won't see food or water again."  
  
Vegeta knew that Freeza was not just stalling. Freeza had given this threat to Vegeta before, and Vegeta had not done what he was asked. It was three weeks before Freeza finally gave into Vegeta's begs for food and water.  
  
"All right." Vegeta growled, and stomped out of the ship.  
  
* * * * *  
  
When he got out of the ship, he kicked the side of it. It put a rather large dent in it. "Shows what I think about YOU, Freeza." He growled. "Thinking you can order ME around!" He kicked the ship three more times and stomped a few flowers. "How DARE him, I'm tired of this. I can't just keep on living like this!" He threw himself against a tree in frustration. He buried his face in the bark, scraping up his already reddened cheeks. *I've got to put a stop to this, got to run away, got to find a better life . . . Anything but being beat. I can't die a slave, I just can't. *  
  
He finally slumped his back against the tree and sat there, thinking about what he was going to do. From all he knew Earth was a relatively big planet, actually a HUGE planet, and it could take weeks for him to find even one Dragonball. It was slim to none that he could get just one Dragonball before dark. He was almost crying from being so frustrated.  
  
*Al right, calm down Vegeta. Just try and if you try, then maybe you can find one. Maybe you can find someone who can tell you where a Dragonball is. * He thought to reassure himself. He slowly pulled himself to his feet shakily, and rubbed his cheeks once more. But hey, Freeza had beaten him worse that just slapping the heck out of him.  
  
Vegeta lifted off into flight. He hoped to avoid Zarbon and Dodoria, Freeza's subjects, who beat him also. But not as much, only when Freeza asked them to, which was slim. Freeza liked to beat Vegeta all by himself.  
  
*Okay . . . Where can I go to find a Dragonball? * Vegeta thought. His raging mind decided on a village first. He could ask the inhabitants of the village if they had seen any Dragonballs, and if they hadn't, he'd kill them. 'Twas the way a heartless saiyan lived his life: bursting through and taking no prisoners.  
  
* * * * * * *  
  
Vegeta finally reached a small village not far from where he had started off flying at. He landed carefully down in the Town Square and looked around for someone, ANYONE, someone to tell him about a Dragonball somewhere near here. But there was no one, no one on the streets. He knocked on a door but there was no one in the house either. He tried several other houses and got the same results.  
  
*Where are all the people? * He thought. He whipped his head from side to side before finally deciding that they were in a human church or something. *Well, I'll just go right to that little church and demand that I'll know where a Dragonball is. * He thought. He recognized all churches as being buildings with tall pointy steeples, and he saw one sitting among the other houses and shops.  
  
Just as Vegeta was about to bust into the church, a smell came wafting under his sensitive saiyan nose. *What . . . Is that . . . It smells so good! * Vegeta thought. Food that smelled that good . . . he hadn't smelled or tasted in a long time. Most of the food he got these days was the slop that Zarbon would give him; leftovers from what he and the others had eaten. The only times he got anything good were very rare, when he'd just destroyed a planet for Freeza, and Freeza barely asked him to do it anymore. Freeza just mainly kept Vegeta in his ship to beat him and keep him as a slave, also because he'd hated Vegeta's father, the King, with a purple passion. Even though Vegeta was now thirty and his father long dead, Freeza still hated King Vegeta.  
  
*I shouldn't have to put myself through this. I'll just look for what smells so good. Since the people of this town are in church, I can steal whatever it is. Have something good for a change. *  
  
He started to sniff the air like a dog might, going for whatever it was that smelled so good. His stomach growled and rolled for that wonderful scent; his mouth dripped drool almost without control.  
  
He soon reached a small illegal selling stand in the Far West of the little town, so ending his search for the scent. Vegeta stared down at the food. Some of it looked familiar, for some of it was fruit, but the rest of it was stuff he'd never seen before in his entire life as a Saiyan. *Well, I'll steal it. * Vegeta thought. He began to look around for something that he could possibly put the fruit into. His eyes finally came across a bag.  
  
Vegeta grabbed the bag and started to shovel the food into it, all that he could fit. *I have to hurry, I can't waste anymore time than I possibly have to doing this. I have to find at least one Dragonball. * When he had shoveled the last of the food into the bag, an even BETTER thought came across his mind. A thought that he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of before.  
  
"I shouldn't worry about Freeza's 'rationing', because I can just make myself a secret hideout! A place I can put a bunch of food and water in, and then when Freeza puts me on his rationing, I can come there and eat on one of my little errands!" Vegeta thought outloud, thinking it was such a perfect idea that he just had to say it outloud. And it was perfect, it really was. Finally no more worrying about ration. No more letting Freeza threaten him with them. Now the only thing he had to worry about was the beating Freeza inflicted on him.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Vegeta found a canyon, about five miles due south of the town he'd found. The dire need to find the Dragonballs in his head was now not dire; but very little, for now he was setting up his secret hideout and everything would be okay. He hoped so, at least.  
He found a small crevice in the wall of the canyon and dropped the bag down there. *Now all I need is to go and find some water. But first, I'm going to sit down and eat a little, after all, Freeza didn't allow me breakfast this morning. *  
  
He plopped down on his ass and dug his hand into the bag, coming up with an apple and sticking the delicious red apple into his mouth. The first bite was like heaven itself. *Ha-ha-ha, Freeza, let's see you put me on ration now. * Vegeta thought. A small chuckle escaped his mouth, but that was all. When you lived the way this man did nothing was really that funny anymore. But he'd look back on this day when he was away from Freeza FINALLY, and he'd laugh on it. Laugh, and laugh, and laugh, for very soon, Vegeta was to meet the person who would turn his life around forever, until the day he died.  
  
* * * * * * * * *  
  
Vegeta woke up to the sun hitting his eyelids, giving him a great big wake up call. His eyes slowly peered open. He stretched his arms above his head and yawned, a huge long yawn. He'd fallen asleep in the canyon next to his bag of food. An apple core lay in his lap.  
  
*All night. I slept all night out here in this canyon. * Vegeta thought.  
  
He stood up and stretched his back and legs. He then grabbed the bag of food and slid it behind a couple of rocks, then covered it with a little bit of dirt. It wouldn't take someone long to find the food but they'd have to search.  
  
The word 'search' brought horrible worry and fear raining down on Vegeta's head. *Oh no! Freeza's probably searching for me right now! And judging by the sun . . . IT'S PAST TWELVE! * Vegeta's mind grew frantic thinking about what he could do about this situation. He looked back at the food that he'd hidden, and then started running through the canyon to search for a place to hide. He knew it would be much easier for Freeza to find him if he was trying to fly back somewhere, so the canyon was his best bet right now.  
  
Vegeta crouched behind a rock. *Please, God, PLEASE, don't let anything happen to me. * He thought, gulping. But his heart sank down into his stomach when he heard someone shout this word:  
  
"VEGETA!"  
  
And the voice that his name was in sounded like Freeza's.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Mere minutes seemed like hours as Vegeta waited fatefully behind that big rock, waiting for Freeza to throw the rock up and find him. And this wasn't exactly what happened; though very similar.  
  
Vegeta was crouched behind the rock and shivering like a little mouse when he felt a strong hand grip his hair painfully. "Ouch!" He groaned, as the person began to drag him out by his hair, cutting his legs and arms on the rocks. "Stop that! Release me!" He shouted. "I don't care if you're Freeza, just let me go and stop it!"  
  
Respondent to Vegeta's wishes whoever it was dropped his hair, and Vegeta's head hit the ground. When he opened his tightly closed eyes he was looking up into the face of Freeza.  
  
"Master Freeza! I . . ." He began.  
  
"You what? Didn't get a Dragonball?"  
  
Vegeta sat up, and looked at the ground with anger in his eyes.  
  
"Well, Vegeta, you don't have to rain the bad news on me because I already knew. I knew when Zarbon told me he'd spotted you sleeping, so I started looking for you. I knew you wouldn't be back by twelve. Now, you're going to pay for it." Freeza bent down and grabbed Vegeta painfully by the arm.  
  
Vegeta winced to withstand the pain. *Just go with the flow, Vegeta, he's beaten you a thousand times before- * But Vegeta's mind didn't think so. Freeza wrenched his arm to the side, and pain radiated up the whole side of Vegeta's body. "AHHHHHHH!" He yelped. He tried to wrench his arm away from the tyrant's grasp, but he could not. "Let go of me!" He ordered.  
  
This got him a punch in the face.  
  
"OUUUCH!"  
  
A huge black bruise instantly made itself visible on Vegeta's cheek. He clapped his hand to his face in pain, as his face danced on fire. It felt as though his eyeballs were boiling.  
  
The beating went on for about five minutes, resulting Vegeta with cracked- up armor and a bunch of bruises on his arms and face.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Vegeta eventually gathered himself to his feet. Freeza had told him to go out and find a Dragonball NOW, that he'd give him another chance before he'd kill him. But Vegeta was still on ration for a month. *Ration my ass, thanks to my new hideout. * Vegeta thought. He had until twelve o clock the next day, too, and this time he'd try to succeed. He blasted off into flight to find a Dragonball.  
  
******PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING AUTHOR'S NOTE!********  
  
sorry this chapter was so short, and it might have been a bit boring, but it was just the introduction. Next chapter is all about Bulma. It's about her getting trapped in the very canyon that Vegeta hid his food in, and . . . what happens when Vegeta comes looking for his stash and finds that it's been eaten? Find out next chapter!  
  
Luv, luvssaintbernards 


	2. Bulma's Accident

Chapter the second.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z or any other trademarked materials in this fanfiction.  
  
Goku shoved a Dragonball in Bulma Breifs's hand. "Be sure you take this with you. Go somewhere where nobody can find you okay? Don't get killed out there, Bulma!"  
  
Bulma had volunteered to do something that could possibly take her life. What is that, you might ask? Well, she had volunteered to take the one Dragonball that Vegeta had found and protect it from the Saiyan that had landed on Earth, whom was searching for the Dragonballs so that he could wish for immortality; at least that was what he wanted. Bulma didn't know about Freeza taking them from this Saiyan.  
  
"Oh, I won't get killed. There's no reason to worry about me." Bulma said. She placed the Dragonball in a pouch that was around her neck. She made sure to secure the Velcro very well before saying bye to her old friend and going through the house to the place where she kept all of her air ships. She put the Dragonball in the cockpit, then sat in the driver's seat. Little did she know that not bringing any food was a dire mistake on her part.  
  
She waved once more to her parents, Goku, Krillin and Gohan. *At least I hope I don't get killed Goku. I can't promise you anything. * She started up the engine and got ready to fly the machine. The only thing she'd brought with her was her make-up.  
  
* * * * * * *  
  
Bulma was having smooth sailing with the machine's will to go on, and she'd usually had problems with it. Except for the fact it was very slow, everything was at a go. But weren't all flying machines really slow? Bulma began looking out the window of the car for a place she could hide the Dragonball, and easily remember, so that she could tell Goku and Krillin where the hell it was at instead of losing it. But she had no luck; just barren land underneath the ship. And, she couldn't hide the thing in barren land, or of course that Saiyan would find it, knowing Saiyans' sharp eyesight.  
  
*I can't just keep it, or that Saiyan will track me down and grab it from me, possibly slaughtering me in the big process of it all. * She thought. And she had to land it fast or the Saiyan, just looking for someone to kill, might shoot her down anyway. So, maybe it was best to just land the ship right here? She decided that was the best option and landed the ship.  
  
When she got out, she noticed how hot the atmosphere around her was. She was in a desert, not very far from the canyon in which Vegeta had just hidden his food, taken a little nap, and gotten beat in before. But she knew it was there, and had no plan at all on falling down in it. The canyon was HUGE, too deep for her to climb out of anywhere, but she knew that too. She had decided to take a route around it, after all, running was three times faster than that airship.  
  
But, someone who was watching her had different plans on her detouring around the canyon. It wasn't Vegeta, but it happened to be someone Vegeta KNEW, by the name of Dodoria. A big, ugly slob. He didn't know that Bulma had the Dragonball, he was just in a bad mood and Bulma was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  
  
Bulma brushed some of her hair back away from her eyes. The sweat was plastering her hair to her forehead. "I should have brought a bottle of water or something." Bulma said outloud to herself. "I'm going to dry up if I don't find somewhere to hide this Dragonball and get back to Capsule Corporation." She whipped her sweaty head around, looking for someplace suitable to hide the Dragonball. But no where was in sight.  
  
"Oh, God, where can I hide this thing?" She yelled around herself. But all that she heard was a vulture caw, and a tumbleweed rolled across her path.  
  
She got back to running, for the faster she ran, the closer she might get to finding someplace to hide the Dragonball at.  
  
It was as she was running as fast as she could that she started to sense some one was watching her, following her. She turned her whole body around to see if the Saiyan was there. Of course, she didn't know what he looked like; just that he probably had a tail around his waist. But, she didn't see a saiyan or anything else. Just still had that feeling that someone was following her.  
  
"You'd better not be following me!" She yelled outloud. "Because if you are, I'll kick your butt! You hear that, Mr. Tough Guy Saiyan? Huh?"  
  
She didn't get an answer from 'Mr. Tough Guy Saiyan.'  
  
"But Saiyans aren't cowards. Saiyan's don't follow people, they just shoot at you the moment that they see you." She thought outloud. "So . . . maybe this isn't the Saiyan. Maybe it's just some kind of an animal."  
  
But that scared her even worse. Animals could stalk you without you even seeing them, and then WAM, they'd pounce on you and cut your throat when you didn't even expect it. Bulma grew even more frightened that she had been before. "Oh Jesus! I should have taken Gohan up on that offer to come out here with me! Then I wouldn't have anything to worry about!"  
  
She sat down and hugged her knees to her chest.  
  
As Bulma was sitting there and rocking back and forth, she heard a noise come darting out behind her. "AHHH!" She shrieked in her annoying, scratchy voice, whipping her head around. And there, launching itself on her, was the ugliest creature she'd ever saw in her life. She didn't know who or what he was; she just knew she had to get away from it FAST.  
  
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed, jumping to her feet and beginning to run, trying not to look back at the hideous, pink thing that had been following her. But, of course her betraying eyes forced her to look back, and she saw that the ugly thing was just a few feet behind her.  
  
"AHH, LEAVE ME ALONE! WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU? AAHHHHHHH!" She screamed, holding the pouch with the Dragonball in it close to her body so that her prized possession wouldn't fall out. She had nothing to defend herself with, and nobody to defend her.  
  
As she streaked across the desert, feeling the thing's presence behind her but not actually looking, she didn't notice herself running closer and closer to the edge of the canyon. Her only thought was to get away from the ugly monster that was coming after her.  
  
Bulma was running so fast when she noticed the edge of the canyon that she could not stop, and her feet slipped off the edge. She went tumbling down the side of the canyon painfully, first rolling on her neck and slicing it down almost to the bone, then sliding on her side and rolling a few times, cutting up her arms, back, and legs. She was almost thankful when she hit the bottom of the canyon, bloody and crying, but alive.  
  
"Please . . . Mr. Alien, or whatever you are . . ." She cried, with her eyes still closed, "Don't hurt me!"  
  
She noticed no pain or no one's presence around her so she opened her tightly shut eyes and looked around.  
  
There was nobody there.  
  
Bulma sighed with relief. "Phew! Maybe I imagined the whole thing." She thought. She dusted the rocks off of her skirt and tried to get to her feet, but her hurt and wobbly legs betrayed her. She went spilling back on the ground, back in the puddle of her own blood. *Jeez, I'm cut up pretty badly. I need help. * She thought. Staring at her legs was bad enough and she didn't want to have to look at any other parts of her body the way that it was.  
  
She made sure that the Dragonball was all right before scooting over to the wall of the canyon. "I have to get out of here somehow. Down here I'm prey to any of the elements. * She thought, noticing there was really not much shelter around this place.  
  
* * * * * * * *  
  
Bulma's throat began to ache and sting, hurt and throb. She was so thirsty by this time, (7:00 at night) that her voice sounded like crinkling paper. She'd been trying to crawl up the side of the canyon all afternoon but only succeeding in getting more cuts and bruises. *Why me? Why do I have to die in such conditions? * She thought, not wanting to say it outloud because it might labor her voice even more. She grasped at her cracked and probably bleeding throat.  
  
"There just has to be water somewhere." She said, in her rusty gate voice. Swallowing her own slobber was not working on her thirst, and her stomach churned. She was ravenous. "That's it. I'm trying to get up the side of this canyon ONE LAST TIME." She growled with determination. She crawled up to the side of the canyon, and grasped a rock firmly.  
  
She strained with all her might to lift her body up, the cords in her neck standing out visible. As she lifted into the standing position her legs wobbled and wiggled uncontrollably from her not getting up again all afternoon. She felt one of her wounds split back open and begin to spill more blood, and pain roared up her side from this. "AHHHH!" She squealed, but kept on trying to pull herself up. She would not let herself fall subject to this pain; to this torture. She was going to get herself up the side of the canyon if it took her everything that she had.  
  
"Come on, God, help me out here!" She prayed. "I need anyone's help, I don't deserve this! That big fat pink monster deserves this more than I do!"  
  
As if someone were respondent to her wishes, she managed to pull herself up and balance up onto her feet, wobbling, but still standing. A smile spread across her pretty face. *Okay, this is the first step into it all Bulma. Just a little bit more and then you'll be laughing and wondering how come you even stayed in this canyon all afternoon. *  
She leaned against the side of the canyon and rested for a second. Her wondering eyes went down to the bleeding wound. *I should make a tourniquet for that wound or I might faint soon. * She thought, already starting to feel a little bit woozy. She didn't know if her stomach now hurt because she was still ravenous or because she was getting sick from blood loss.  
  
Bulma ripped a little bit off of her skirt and wrapped it above the wound on her thigh, tying it as tight as she could. She grimaced with the effort, her shaking arms about to fail on her. She quickly jerked her hands back before that could happen. She smiled a little bit and the looked up at the bit of night sky visible from the bottom of the canyon.  
  
*In just a couple of minutes . . . maybe an hour . . . I'll be able to see ALL of the night. * She thought, digging one of her feet into the side of the cliff and heaving herself up a little bit. Her leg seriously shook, but gained its ground in a little bit.  
  
"Yeah, you'd better stop shaking." She growled to her limb.  
  
* * * *  
  
Bulma was going very well, and was more than halfway up the side of the canyon wall. Her legs and arms were not betraying her anymore and she felt like a new woman. She felt like she was stronger than she'd ever been; she felt even stronger than she had after she'd broken up with her boyfriend.  
  
Bulma finally placed both of her arms on the edge of the canyon, tears cutting through the dirt on her face like rivers. "Yes! I made it!" She rasped, going to pull her body up the canyon. She groaned with effort as she tried to pull herself up.  
  
But, as Bulma was pulling herself up the side of the canyon, she felt her hand smack on something dry and scaly. She stifled a scream. *It's not a snake . . . it's a . . . SNAKE!! * Her thoughts screamed, as what was under her hand wiggled and slithered at her.  
  
The snake coiled up and rattled its rattle.  
  
Bulma was too dumbfounded to do anything but stare at the hideous animal.  
  
The snake struck.  
  
Bulma tried to weave her head to the side, but the snake struck the side of her neck painfully. Bulma shrieked out in pain, and started to tug at the snake without falling down the side of the canyon again. She almost fell as a wave of dizziness washed over her head. She was becoming sick, fast, from the poison!  
  
*I've got to get myself up before I faint! * Bulma thought. Her eyelids were now drooping considerably. She yanked at the snake weakly once more. It popped loose, and Bulma threw it. She hoped that it died, but she had no time to think about that now. That snake was not going to keep her from getting up the side of this canyon! But, had she known that she'd meet someone very special in this canyon, she would have stayed. But she didn't know about that right now. She was only thinking about how badly she needed water.  
  
Bulma's arms, in one of her spells of weakness, slipped from the canyon wall and spilled her down in again. Bulma bashed against the side of the canyon. She then began to roll down it, cutting herself up even more. She screamed in agony as she heard something on her body pop, possibly even break. She knew it was her leg when fiery pain ran up it. "EEEKKK!" She wailed as she rolled on the floor of the canyon, finally coming to a stop against the opposite wall. Now, she was in so much pain she was paralyzed. But more than in pain she was dizzy and nauseous. But tonight, fate would be with her, and she wasn't going to faint or die or even get SICK from the snake; the only thing the snake had really harmed was her getting up the side of the canyon.  
  
"Oh, great." She muttered.  
  
She sat up against the side of the canyon, breathing hard but still alive thankfully. She bent her leg to test it. It wasn't broke; but something was wrong with it. It was all purple near the place where her thigh connected to her body. *At least the bone's not coming out. * She thought. She wiped sweat off of her brow, after passing another dizzy spell. She felt very tired and as weak as a newborn kitten.  
  
She decided to crawl around and look for a safe place to sleep in this hellhole. *Heck, who cares? I'm stuck in a freaking canyon; it'll all be just as bad to sleep anywhere in here. * She thought. But, her thoughts about where to sleep were suddenly interrupted when she spotted a peculiar looking sight a couple of feet away from her. * What the hank? * She thought, crawling closer to what looked like a bag. She noticed it was behind the rock as if someone had been hiding it, but who cares? She obviously needed it more than that person did right now. Was that person all bloody and stranded in the bottom of a canyon with no food or water?  
  
She grabbed the bag and yanked it out, making the dirt fall off of it. A couple of oranges and an apple rolled out of the bag as she dragged it over. *Yes! It's food, and not something stupid! * She thought. She grabbed one of the apples. Her stomach growled angrily as if to welcome the food to her body as she took the first bite. That apple was more filling than any apple had ever been to her in her life.  
  
After her apple, she grabbed an orange, peeled it with her teeth, and squeezed the juice of it into her mouth. It was a little bit, but at least it was something to soothe her cracked throat just a little bit. After squeezing the juice out she ate the orange, thankful for the food. It wasn't very long until she'd devoured the entire bag of food in her hunger, leaving her full enough for six women her size. But at least she wouldn't be hungry again for a while.  
  
*I think it's time to go to sleep for a little bit. * She thought, laying down on her back and stretching her legs out. *Sleep will calm my mind, and in the morning I'll wake up refreshed. Then I'll go for climbing up the side of the canyon again. * She thought. So, thinking this, she went to sleep, not knowing that the food she'd just eaten belonged to someone else that was really going to need it after twelve tomorrow.  
  
End of chappy two! (Sorry I didn't put a name on chapter one, I'll get around to that soon. I really don't like it when people don't name their chapters, and I'm sure that you don't appreciate it either.) Anyway, next chapter, Vegeta finds Bulma sitting next to his empty bag of food . . . with a DRAGONBALL! What does he do, and what will happen to Bulma? Even more, what feelings does Bulma get when she comes across Vegeta's handsome face and finds out about his horrible life when Vegeta helplessly spills out his past to her? Find out in the next chapters!  
  
Luv, luvssaintbernards  
  
P.S-Read my other stories, please! 


	3. The Meeting

Chapter the third  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z or any other trademarked materials in this fanfiction.  
  
Vegeta rambled on and on with cuss words as he tried to untangle himself from the thorny bush in which he had gotten tangled, when tripping and falling off a short drop. Now, he was stuck in this thorny plant by his hair. He grabbed his hair and managed to yank himself out. "No Dragonball here." He groaned, rubbing his now very sore head. He was very dirty, for he hadn't washed himself in a while and digging around for some Dragonball wasn't really helping him out very much. But, it was three-o clock in the morning, and he hadn't found a Dragonball yet. His precious time was ticking.  
  
He had looked everywhere possible to look in this area; but that was just this AREA. There was a one in ten million chance that he'd find a Dragonball in just this one place! And, he was really very tired and just wanted to take a little nap.  
  
*I can't take a nap. Not without finding a Dragonball. * He thought, blasting off of the ground to go and look somewhere else, once again praying that he wouldn't run into Zarbon or Dodoria. But, he didn't know that he WOULD meet up with one of them, the one called Dodoria. The ugly pink alien who had chased Bulma into the canyon and made her fall in, hurting her rather bad. Dodoria would lose his life at Vegeta's hands in the near future for that . . . but I'm getting ahead of myself. (Sorry!)  
  
As Vegeta was flying around, looking at the desert below him for at least a Dragonball, he didn't see anything for a while. But what he did see puzzled him.  
  
It was some kind of a machine like he had never seen before.  
  
Vegeta landed next to the weird looking thing that looked kind of like an airplane and kind of like a car. "What is this? Some kind of a human invention?" He asked himself, running his hands over the tin metal machine. He noticed a door on the side, and decided to climb in and take a look for himself. But if he found any dead humans, he was out of there!  
  
Vegeta swung the door open so hard that the hinges broke and the door came off in his hand. *Piece of shit! * He thought, throwing the door behind him. He stuck his head inside the machine and looked around to make sure there were no threats before he went inside.  
  
It looked very well kept inside the machine, and it was quite obvious that this machine had not been crash-landed. It had been landed, and the person had gotten out to walk. "Why would someone get out and walk? Wouldn't this thing be faster than walking?" Vegeta thought outloud. What he said got the idea in his mind to sit down and try to figure out how this machine worked. He sat down in the control chair, looking at all of the buttons and switches and knobs in front of him. There were so many buttons, but what did they do?  
  
Vegeta was about to reach out and pull a switch, when he felt something dig into his behind. "Ow! What the hell did I sit on?" He cursed; slightly standing up and pulling whatever it was off of the seat.  
  
It was a zipped up bag.  
  
Vegeta scratched his head in puzzlement and zipped the bag open, finding lots of different things inside the bag. There was a little black case that particularly caught the Saiyan's eye. He was not stupid and knew it was probably make-up or something, but decided to open it up anyway, just because he was curious. After all, you'd always be curious if you didn't go for the gold, wouldn't you?  
  
Vegeta opened it, and found powdery stuff inside. He knew it was probably make-up judging by the mirror inside of the case. Vegeta looked at his reflection. Instead of the rather handsome man he had grown up to be he saw a bruised up and battered man who looked like he'd been beaten by frat boys. But, he had been beaten. Just not by frat boys.  
  
Vegeta darted his eyes away from the disappointing reflection he saw and now started to look at the powdery stuff that was in there. He put his finger in it, getting some on his glove. He sniffed it.  
  
He didn't smell anything in particular, but there was a kind of funny tinge to it. A smell that made his want to gag, so, being curious, he bent his head down and sniffed the whole thing, making sure it wasn't some kind of a poison or anything. When he sniffed it, he sneezed really loud. "HA-KA- CHOOOO!" and powdery make-up went flying everywhere. Vegeta rubbed his nose. "Yep. It's definitely make-up." He said to himself, putting it away and going through the rest of the bag.  
  
He found nothing else that interested him, so he just zipped it up and was about to throw it out, when he thought about something. He wasn't gay or anything, and didn't want to put the make-up on himself, but something was telling him to keep it. So, he did. He stored it into his armor, knowing that you should always follow your instincts when you were a Saiyan.  
  
Vegeta got up and got out of the ship, forgetting all about wanting to fly it somewhere. "Maybe I should come back to it later, when I have time. For now I have to find a Dragonball." He said to himself, flying off the ground and looking down at the desert below him as he flew.  
  
As Vegeta was minding his own business, he felt someone grab his sensitive tail from around his waist and yank on it, causing pain to radiate up Vegeta's body. "OUCHH!" He hollered, stopping immediately and turning around to face whoever had done it.  
  
It turned out to be Dodoria.  
  
Vegeta scowled, yanking on his tail. "Let go of me." He ordered. "I have to find a Dragonball for Master Freeza, and I've already wasted enough time as it is. I have no time to mess with you."  
  
Dodoria released Vegeta's tail. "I saw you in that air ship a minute ago, Vegeta." He said.  
  
"Yeah, so?" Vegeta asked, rubbing the base of his tail where it was now tender. "If I were to eat some dog shit, you and Zarbon would be just right there."  
  
"I just wanted to tell you about this girl, looked to be about your age, was out here. She's the one who landed that ship, and she had something around her neck. I don't know what was in there; but I think it was a Dragonball. That's what it looked like, anyway." Dodoria told Vegeta, being at least a little bit friendly for once.  
  
"And you didn't stop her, correct?" Vegeta asked.  
  
Dodoria shrugged. "I tried, I chased her and was about to kill her, but then she fell in the canyon and I lost track of her down there. She must have been lost somewhere that it was dark, and I figured that if she fell down there, she was dead anyway, so I just went to look for a Dragonball."  
  
Vegeta was furious. "WHAT IF THAT WAS A DRAGONBALL AROUND HER NECK?" He screamed, so mad that he felt like killing Dodoria. But he knew that if he did that, Freeza'd kill him. Almost anything he did would get him killed. "YOU COULD HAVE LOST A DRAGONBALL! YOU IDIOT!"  
  
Vegeta then realized what he'd said was something that could get him majorly beat so without even looking back at Dodoria he zipped off towards the canyon. *My food! What if she got to my food? * His mind questioned. That was even more important than the Dragonball at that moment! He started to fly even faster.  
  
* * * *  
  
As Vegeta got over the canyon, he didn't see anything in particular until he spotted a huge bloodstain on the ground. Vegeta made a face. "Jesus. This must have been where it happened." He groaned. He know found that his instincts weren't working very well, and he found himself flying down, down, down to the bloody spot. Smart as he was, curiosity got the best of him.  
  
"If she were dead . . . then her body would be right here, where the blood spot is at." Vegeta said out loud. "So she couldn't have died RIGHT HERE. She could have died somewhere else, but . . . not right here." He bent down and touched a rock that was drenched in the woman's blood. It was dried up; meaning that she was there a while ago and not just a minute ago. She'd been moving on for a while.  
  
Vegeta noticed a trail of blood leading from the huge blood spot and on around the corner. Vegeta smirked a little. "I'll find that idiot woman in no time if I follow this blood trail, and then I can get her Dragonball! I should thank God for how stupid Dodoria is." He decided to follow the trail walking, because while flying he could maybe miss something. So, he started to walk, following the trail of dried up blood.  
  
* * * * * It wasn't long until the blood that Vegeta was following got stickier and redder, meaning that he was getting closer and closer to the woman. And, he realized closer and closer to his stash of food. He scowled. *If she ate my food it'll be her last day alive . . . if she's still alive. * He thought. He imagined coming across his hideout and seeing an empty bag, and a huge, fat, ugly woman next to it, sleeping with a Dragonball in her hands. The only things right about this prediction was the bag and the Dragonball. The huge, fat woman was dead wrong, as he so discovered when he came across his bag of food.  
  
"Oh my god!" He exclaimed, noticing that every scrap of food was gone out of his bag, He looked around the spot where it had been eaten in hopes of finding just one more piece. But there was nothing, and Vegeta was officially screwed. "NOOOOOO!" He screamed, throwing the bag down and stomping on it. "No no no no no no! Not my food!" He screamed, throwing his little temper tantrum. When he looked around, though, he didn't see anybody. The blood trail went longer down the canyon, getting stickier by the meter.  
  
Vegeta growled and gritted his teeth, noticing the blood spot next to his bag of food was large. *That means she stopped here a little bit * He thought, turning his mad eyes in the direction of the woman. He decided he'd follow that trail, find her, and demand her for the Dragonball. But, he didn't know that it wouldn't exactly turn out that way.  
  
Vegeta was very tired of following the trail of blood, when he found the end. But, surprisingly, the end of the trial did not have any women at it. It was just blank, with no sign of life. Vegeta started to stomp his feet and scream. "NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!" He screamed, starting to blast things around him.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Bulma was huddled up in a rock crevice above the scary Saiyan's head, hoping that he wouldn't sense or find her. She had heard him screaming and climbed up there to hide, managing to stop the bleeding so he couldn't find her anymore. She held the pouch with the Dragonball in it in a death grip. *You won't get my Dragonball, stupid Saiyan. I won't let Goku down. * Bulma thought. She almost giggled, watching him throw that baby fit. She noticed that he was a very handsome man, one of the most handsome she'd ever seen. But he looked like someone had beaten him about the face and arms really bad, and his armor was all shabby and cracked. *I wonder what happened to him? It's not like I care; but still, I wonder why he's so beat up? *  
  
She shifted, and almost fell from the crevice in which she lay. But, she quickly caught her balance and kept really still, knowing what sensitive hearing all Saiyans had. She was sure that this guy would be no exception.  
  
Vegeta heard a little noise above him. Not a big noise; just something like a creak, the kind of noise a house makes when it's settling in. He snapped his head up, and didn't see anything. *I knew I was going crazy. * He thought, starting to walk on down. But he was sure that he heard something when it creaked again. But this time, it was LOUD. His head snapped back.  
  
"If there's anybody over here . . . speak up now before I start blowing things up!" He threatened. "In which I'll start in ten . . . nine . . ."  
  
Bulma was frightened. *Oh no! What do I do now?! * She asked herself. She didn't want to expose herself, but she didn't want to be blown up either.  
*Well, maybe he'll give me a chance if I act now. * Bulma thought. Deciding this was her best choice, she shouted, "Right here!"  
  
Vegeta smirked. "Ha, I knew you'd speak up if I said that. Now, where are you? Make yourself visible or I'll shoot!"  
  
"I can't!"  
  
Vegeta froze. *Can't? What does she mean she can't? * He took a step forward. "I'm warning you, human-"  
  
"I can't move because I'm stuck! I got myself stuck up here!" She bluffed. "The only way I can get out is if someone helps me out." She figured that this was halfway true, too.  
  
Vegeta scowled. "Uh . . . fine. But only because you might have something that I want." He blasted directly below the place where he suspected the woman to be laying, and smoke billowed up. Vegeta covered his mouth and nose to keep him from going into a sneezing or coughing fit.  
  
He waited for the smoke to clear, and when in did, there was a beautiful woman lying on the ground, with a pouch around her neck. Looking at the pouch closely it seemed that there was something in it; something ROUND. Vegeta's look of bore turned into a maniacal smile. *Yes! Yes! * He thought, taking a step forward. He smirked when he saw the woman flinch away, and he realized that he'd probably have to kill her.  
  
"Don't make me kill you, woman." He threatened. "Hand over what's in your pouch. I'll keep you alive if you give me the Dragonball NOW."  
  
Bulma looked at him with fear in her eyes. *I hope this isn't the way I die . . . because I can't give him the Dragonball! I won't let Goku down! * She thought. So, thinking this, she turned her expression of fear into determination. "No. I can't give you the Dragonball. I made a promise to someone that I wouldn't let you have it."  
  
At first, Vegeta was surprised and angered that the woman would directly tell him NO. But then he started to humor her. He threw his head back and laughed handsomely. "HAHAHAHA! THAT'S FUNNY, FUNNY THAT YOU'D SAY THAT!" He roared, clutching his stomach and doubling over in his laughing fit. *What kind of a worm would say that to a saiyan? * He thought, bringing on worse laughter.  
  
Bulma just stared at him. *What could he think is so funny? I'm refusing to give him the Dragonball, why is that funny? * She slowly stood up. "Uh . . . Excuse me, but I hardly see what could be funny in this situation. I was serious; I'm not going to give you the Dragonball. You can kill me, I don't care."  
  
Vegeta finally managed to pull himself together. He wiped his eyes on his gloves. "You can't be serious. No human would ever refuse something directly to a saiyan. Now, this has been enough funny business. Give me the Dragonball and I'll leave you alone. However, if you don't give me the Dragonball, I'll kill you where you stand."  
  
"And take a chance on shattering the Dragonball with your blast?"  
  
Vegeta froze when she said this. It was a true statement, very true. Vegeta growled. "Smart . . . smart statement indeed." He snarled. How mad it made him that a human could exceed the common sense of a saiyan! He stepped forward. "Woman, just give me the Dragonball. I need it. I can't tell you why, but I need it. If you don't give it to me . . . I'll . . ."  
  
Bulma smiled. *It's kind of cute that he can't think of what to do; a big and strong Saiyan like that. * She thought. She decided to make a deal of her own. She had been wondering about those bruises on his face, and also, she figured that Goku cared more about her life than one Dragonball. She had to get out of this canyon.  
  
"Say, Mr. Saiyan . . ." She began.  
  
"Vegeta! My name is VEGETA!" He screamed at Bulma in irritance.  
  
Bulma smiled. "Whatever, Mr. Vegeta . . . I thought that maybe I could work out some kind of a deal with you. A deal; the Dragonball for whatever I ask you for."  
  
Vegeta smirked. "What might you ask me for? I shouldn't have to answer anything you have to ask; but I'll listen just as well. I'm curious." He crossed his arms and waited for her to state what she wanted of him, whatever it might be. Probably something stupid, for this blue-haired woman didn't look very smart to him. But he didn't know that he was dead wrong.  
  
"Okay, Vegeta, I want to ask you this: First of all, if you tell me why you're so beat up, and, you have to get me out of this canyon. If you do that for me than the Dragonball is all yours."  
  
Vegeta just stared at her.  
  
"I promise." Bulma said.  
  
Vegeta kept quiet. He was angered that she'd pry into his business like that; angered that she'd even asked. Also angered that if he wanted the Dragonball, he'd have to tell her why he had the bruises on his face. Vegeta snarled. "I . . . won't say a word." He answered. "I don't have to. You have no business prying into my personal life like that. I'm just going to blast you for the Dragonball, and take the risk of shattering it."  
  
Bulma held up a hand. "Wait wait wait!" She shouted. "Don't blast! Please . . . it can't be that hard to tell me what happened to you. I'll bet you got it in a brave fight with someone, didn't you? After all, a brave saiyan would-"  
  
"Actually, that's not how it happened at all."  
  
Bulma froze. The look on Vegeta's face showed deep sadness and anger; and Bulma was filled with sympathy for the cold-blooded killer. She walked a step closer to him. "It was something bad, wasn't it?" She asked.  
  
Vegeta stepped back. "Stay away from me!" He shouted. "Give me that Dragonball!" He actually charged up the powerball in his hand.  
  
Before Bulma could react otherwise, she threw the Dragonball at Vegeta. "Here! Take it!" She shouted. "I don't care about the Dragonball!"  
  
Vegeta, taken by surprise, uncharged the ki blast and caught the Dragonball in one hand. He smirked. "Nice workmanship." He commented. "But you were a fool for giving this to me. Now I don't have to answer your question at all." He charged up an aura and got ready to fly away. But, as he started flying, he heard a high-pitched squeal come from the blue-headed woman. His poor ears started to ache. "What the-" He said, looking down at Bulma.  
  
She was bawling like a baby.  
  
Vegeta scowled. *Foolish woman. Why is she crying? * He thought. Struck by curiosity he flew back down in front of her. "What's the matter with you?" He ordered. "Shut up! You almost blasted my eardrums!"  
  
Bulma continued crying. "I was just thinking about how I'll never get out of this stupid canyon, and how I never should have gotten out of the flying machine-"  
  
Vegeta ceased listening. *So that weird thing was hers, and this make-up probably is hers. * So thinking this, he grabbed the bag out of his armor and stared at it. But it wasn't in his hands for very long.  
  
"You thief!" Bulma cried. "You took my make-up! You transsexual! You-"  
  
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Vegeta shouted, angry. He was shaking he was so angry. "I did not steal your make-up, I found it in your ship and decided it would be best to take it along with me. I had no intention of putting the make-up on myself." He then began trying to blast off again. But when he was about to, Bulma started crying again. Vegeta's poor ears started ringing.  
  
He turned around and faced her. "Shut up or I'll kill you anyway!" He threatened.  
  
Bulma cried harder. "Please, Mr. Saiyan . . . Vegeta, whatever you said your name was . . . I know that you're evil and all, but . . . CAN YOU PLEASE GET ME OUT OF HERE AND TAKE ME TO MY FLYING MACHINE? PLEASE?" She bawled.  
  
Vegeta stared at her, then burst into laughter once again. "HAHAHAHAHA! You're funny, woman!" He chortled. "Me? Help a human woman? In your dreams!"  
  
Bulma buried her face in her hands, tears dripping off of her fingers. "But then I'll never get out of here . . . " She whined. "I'll stop crying so loud if you get me out, because then I'll have no reason to cry."  
  
Vegeta thought about this. *That could be good . . . I don't think that my poor ears can take it anymore. * He crossed his arms.  
  
"Please?" Bulma asked. "I know that you're evil, and I promise I won't tell anyone if you help me."  
  
Vegeta thought some more. "I don't know . . . Even though I said I wouldn't kill you if you gave me the Dragonball, I shouldn't have to keep promises. I don't even know why I'm here talking to you."  
  
"Please?"  
  
Vegeta sighed. "Oh . . . K." He said, flying up and grabbing her by the collar of her shirt. When he lifted off, she brought her hands to her throat. "What's your problem?" Vegeta asked, shaking her violently.  
  
"I . . . can't . . . breathe . . . YOU'RE CHOKING ME, VEGETA!"  
  
By the loud force of her yell, Vegeta dropped her on the ground. "I don't care if I'm choking you! You want out of this canyon, don't you?"  
  
"Yeah, but alive!"  
  
Vegeta landed next to Bulma on the ground. "If I can't fly you out of the canyon that way, then what do you propose that I do? I'm not your slave, woman." He griped.  
  
"You could carry me out like a real gentleman would." Bulma answered, almost laughing at the look that crossed about Vegeta's face. What quality did this man have that made him so damn charming? Not only was he charming, but a little bit funny. She didn't think he was trying to be funny, though, but she thought that he was hilarious. She knew that he was about to kill her in about two seconds. He was also very handsome.  
  
Vegeta looked at his feet. "If you want out of this canyon so badly than I suggest you shut up." He proclaimed, but bent down and picked her up just the same. He didn't hold her close, though; he held her away from him.  
  
Bulma realized that, even though Vegeta was evil, she felt kind of safe in his strong arms. "I forgot where I parked my flying machine." Bulma said.  
  
"I didn't."  
  
He blasted off, trying to ignore the feeling of Bulma in his arms. But he just couldn't, the fact that he had a gorgeous woman in his arms was itching at his brain. Also, the fact that he didn't really want to be carrying her. He speeded up more, wanting to be rid of Bulma as fast as he could. And, if Freeza or Zarbon saw him doing this, they'd most likely rat him out to Freeza and he'd be killed. But, Vegeta didn't care. He didn't want to be carrying Bulma anymore than she probably wanted him carrying her. But he didn't realize that she liked it.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
"Here we are." Vegeta grumped; dropping his passenger on the ground before they even landed.  
  
Bulma groaned as she landed on her butt, then stood up. She dusted her butt off. "Gee, thanks Vegeta. You may be evil but you sure are helpful."  
  
Vegeta smirked. "Don't expect it to ever happen again. Next time I see you, I'll probably kill you, because of all you've put me through. You'd better hope that I don't decide to now."  
  
Bulma stood there for a minute, knowing she wanted to say something but not quite what to say. When Vegeta crouched down to blast off she found herself stopping him. "Wait, please wait!" She said. "I didn't get to properly thank you for all you did."  
  
Vegeta growled. "Woman, shut up! You don't know how irritated you're getting me. I'll kill you where you stand!"  
  
Bulma was still persistent. "Vegeta! Just let me tell you something!"  
  
"Tell me what?"  
  
Bulma looked down at her feet, shuffling them. "Uh . . . My name. I just wanted to tell you . . . My name is Bulma."  
  
Vegeta scoffed at her and just flew off, wondering why she had wanted to tell him her name. It wasn't like they'd ever see each other again, was it? Was it? *Aw well. Now that's over, and I can get this Dragonball to Freeza. I don't even have to remember the horrible thing I did today. * He thought, going faster as he approached Freeza's ship. But forgetting Bulma wouldn't be all that easy.  
  
End of chapter three  
  
Did you like that chapter? I know that in some contexts Vegeta wouldn't have helped Bulma, but he was really irritated! Anyway, in the next chapter, Bulma finds that she can't get Vegeta out of her mind. She realizes that she must go try and find him, no matter what the costs, so she goes out to find him. What happens when she does?  
  
-Luv, luvssaintbernards 


	4. Lovers at Last

Chapter the fourth  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z or any other trademarked materials in this fanfiction.  
  
As Bulma flew her flying machine, she couldn't get Vegeta's face out of her mind, his evil face. When she had been talking to him he certainly didn't seem evil; there just seemed to be something about him that made him defensive. He didn't seem like the type to kill, even though Goku claimed he'd try to kill him before. But Bulma didn't blame him. He was a Saiyan, and it was a Saiyan's instinct to kill. That was what they lived for.  
  
Still, she couldn't get the way she felt when he was carrying her. She felt all nice and safe, and like she had known Vegeta for years, when it was really about ten minutes. What was it about that evil man that made him so . . . charming and nice to be around? Was it the fact that he was handsome, because, he WAS very handsome to her, or was it just when he had helped her? Either way, she couldn't stop thinking about him. It was just too hard to let it go and say that she'd never see him again. She felt like she hadn't thanked him properly for all that he did.  
  
* * * * *  
  
When Bulma got back to Capsule Corporation, Goku greeted her eagerly. "Where did you hide the Dragonball, Bulma?" He asked.  
  
Bulma simply slouched past him and into her room, where she shut the door and sat on the bed to think about things.  
  
Goku walked up to the door and opened it slightly. "Bulma, is something bothering you? Did the Saiyan take your Dragonball?" He asked. He walked in a little bit closer to Bulma, making sure that Vegeta hadn't hurt her or anything. "Did the Saiyan hurt you?"  
  
Bulma smiled dreamily and shook her head. "No, he didn't hurt me Goku. I'm perfectly fine." She admitted, "And he did take the Dragonball. But only because I gave it to him. I was scared; and I think he was too. But it wasn't for the reason that I was. He seemed . . . timid about something, when I asked him a question."  
  
Goku was about to walk out, but what Bulma said had struck him curious.  
  
"You aren't mad at me for giving him the Dragonball are you? He was going to kill me, you know." Bulma sighed, hugging a pillow up to her chest.  
  
"Back up for a second. What question did you ask him?" Goku asked. "It isn't very smart to-"  
  
"I asked him how he got the bruises on his face. He had bruises all over him. It was like someone had beaten the life out of him. It was awfully sad, so I asked him how he got them. But he never told me. All he told me was that he didn't get them in a fight."  
  
Goku, thinking her stupid, walked out of the room in kind of a slum about Bulma giving Vegeta the Dragonball.  
  
* * * * * * *  
  
Bulma couldn't sleep that night. All that she could think about was Vegeta, and how mean he was until she brought up the bruises on his face. *I wonder how he got them if he wasn't in a fight. * She thought, rolling once more. The sandman was either late tonight or just never planned on coming.  
  
*He was so handsome . . . and so charming . . . * Bulma thought, with a small smile. *A lot more charming then any of my other boyfriends. * She was thinking pacifically about Yamcha when she said this. Yamcha was the guy she'd been with since Goku was a boy, but now she was broken up with him. They were still very good friends though.  
  
She was so curious about those bruises on Vegeta's face, and how they had got there, and how sad he'd seemed when he told her he didn't get them in a fight. How had he gotten them? Was there somebody beating him? Was he battered, and needed to get away? Would he EVER get away? But, there was also the thought of Vegeta being a Saiyan. Saiyans' wouldn't let anybody beat them, unless whoever was doing it was stronger . . . Like another alien.  
  
*Aw well. If he won't stop it, it's his fault. * Bulma thought. But she couldn't get herself to think this way. She kept on thinking about the poor man's misfortune, thinking so much that she slipped on her house shoes and walked to the window, looking outside and wondering where he was at, and how he was. *Maybe that's why he wanted the Dragonball so bad that he might risk shattering it. Maybe whoever it is that beat him was going to beat him if he didn't get one. * Bulma thought. *So maybe it was for the best that I gave him the Dragonball. Maybe now, whoever is beating him will be happy with him. * Bulma smiled a little bit at this thought, thinking about how she could have made a difference in Vegeta's life.  
  
"Vegeta . . ." She murmured to herself. She liked the way that his name sounded coming out of her mouth, Vegeta, Vegeta, Vegeta. It was a perfect name. It was a name that she'd never forget as long as she lived. But, the disappointment was that she might never get to see Vegeta again, for she doubted that he'd come looking for her. He was just too much of a selfish person. Or was he? Did he feel the same about Bulma as she felt about him?  
  
As a person who'd had her heart broken before, Bulma had never believed in love at first sight. She thought that it seemed too far-fetched and out of this world, after all, too many people got their hearts broken in this cruel world. Love at first sight was as far-fetched as magic to her, because she'd thought that was love at first sight with Yamcha. Proved that it wasn't when he dumped her like a dog.  
  
But, she wasn't sure if she believed in love at first sight now, because she thought she'd fallen prey to it.  
  
* * * * *  
  
After staying awake for at least three more hours, Bulma found that she couldn't stay in bed no matter how hard she tried, because she wanted to see him so badly again. She couldn't stop thinking about how far away Vegeta was; about what he was doing at the moment. Maybe he was eating, sleeping . . . most likely sleeping, because of the time of night it was.  
  
*Enough WONDERING what Vegeta's doing . . . Why don't I get up and see? * She asked herself. It didn't seem like too bad of a plan. After all, she couldn't sleep, and didn't the doctors tell you to get up and do something else when you couldn't sleep? Bulma shrugged and got up, going over to her dresser and slipping on a tight shirt and a skirt. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail. *But I don't even know where to look for him. * She thought. *He could be flying around anywhere, he's a saiyan! But most likely asleep, because it's night. So where would he be sleeping? *  
  
Bulma decided to look for a space ship, because Vegeta couldn't come to Earth without a space ship, so she figured that she should go and look for one. She went out and got her flying machine, ready to put it into gear and start looking for Vegeta.  
  
* * * * * * * * *  
  
Vegeta went to sleep in a good mood, remembering the events that had took place this night. No beating. Freeza had been pleased with him, and given him a good dinner for getting him the Dragonball. Vegeta's rations were removed, too, and luckily Zarbon or Dodoria hadn't seen him carrying Bulma. They just wished they'd found her so they could get the credit for the Dragonball.  
  
*I owe it all to Bulma, for giving me the Dragonball. * He thought, smiling as he leaned against a tree out by the ship to sleep. He decided against sleeping in the ship tonight because he needed some fresh air to think about how well things had gone tonight.  
  
Vegeta got to thinking about the conversation that had taken place between him and the woman, the conversation that shouldn't have happened. He should have shot her head off after giving him the Dragonball and the flown off, ending her life and his worry about the Dragonball. This had been his plan, too, but when he was about to his heart had told him to stop. Something inside him wanted him to keep her alive.  
  
Thinking about how beautiful Bulma was made his tail all twitchy, like most Saiyans' tails got when they were exited. (In more than one way exited LOL.) Vegeta grabbed it to keep it from going haywire as he tried to sleep, but it didn't work. It was bringing out the longing he felt to see the woman who had saved his life again. "Stop it!" He ordered to it, but of course, it didn't work. He had to see Bulma again. "I don't need to see Bulma again, she was a stupid earthling woman. I'll bet that she's home crying that I tried to beat her up, which I should have."  
  
Vegeta leaned his head back against the tree, unfurling his tail from his waist in hopes that would work. As he found himself looking at the moon he realized how close it was to a full moon . . . only about a week. He'd turn into a huge, rampaging monkey in a week.  
  
Vegeta didn't mind the transformation, as he usually didn't remember the damage he did. He didn't really care anyway. This was not his planet and he did not care what he destroyed. There was only one thing he kept thinking about he would care if he destroyed. And you know what that was, and his tail certainly did too. It started twitching like mad.  
  
Vegeta growled, grabbing it to try and keep it under control. It was like he couldn't even control it when he was horny! "You'd better stop that or I'll cut you off." He growled, and sat on it to keep it from twitching. But it somehow kept twitching, making it harder and more uncomfortable for him to get to sleep.  
  
* * * * * * *  
  
Vegeta felt something brushing against his thigh while he was in his light sleep, tickling him and waking him up. He realized it was his tail, bringing out the longing for Bulma again. Vegeta screamed out in frustration. *In order to make it stop twitching, I'll have to see Bulma again. * Vegeta thought. *But I can't see Bulma again! I don't know where she is . . . And I'll bet I can get my tail under control on my own. It is mine, after all. It's not like it's doing it on its own. *  
  
Thinking this, he concentrated as much as he could on making his twitchy tail keep still. He could manage to contain it a little; but it was still rigid and twitched a little bit. He finally gave up on sleeping. "Unless I see her again, I'll never be able to sleep!" He thought outloud, pounding a fist on the ground. "But I don't know where she is! She could be anywhere out in the world!"  
  
He looked up at the sky, thinking about flying off and finding Bulma in order for him to sleep. But what if it was all for nothing? What if he found her, and . . . he fell for her? What would happen then, except for sadness on both of their parts? This was so, because Vegeta knew what would happen if Freeza found out that he was spending all of his free time with some girl instead of looking for the Dragonballs. Or maybe Freeza wouldn't like it because he wanted to make Vegeta miserable. Any way, Freeza would kill him for it.  
  
*Aw Well. I don't care. I'll just sit here and think about it. After all, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm never going to see her again. * He closed his eyes.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Bulma looked down on the ground from her flying machine, looking for a space ship. She had no proof that it was anywhere around here. But, she had a strong feeling about this area that Vegeta was somewhere there. It was as if she felt his presence lurking out in the darkness somewhere; and all she had to do now was seek it out. She was so close but yet so far.  
  
*I wonder if he's thinking about me. * Bulma thought; only bringing more longing for the Saiyan. What if he was? What if she found him, and he had been wanting to find her too?  
  
But there was something that seemed to be blocking her mind about her and Vegeta. She remembered the bruises on his face, and wondered if somebody who would never let their love survive ruled him with a strong grip? Just as Bulma was through thinking this thought, she spotted a huge circular object on the ground below her.  
  
*A space ship! * Bulma thought with thrill, smiling from ear to ear. She didn't see the Saiyan around, but she figured he was probably inside of the space ship. That was a risk she would have to take, to find Vegeta.  
  
She landed her air ship and slowly got out.  
  
Had Vegeta been awake at the moment, he would have heard Bulma and warned her not to go inside the ship. But he had finally drifted off to sleep.  
  
* * * * * * *  
  
Bulma walked up to the door of the space ship, noticing it was wide open for anyone to enter. *I could go in right now and find Vegeta. * Bulma thought. *Then, I'll come right out. Nothing is going to happen to me in there. * But, somehow, her mind was telling her otherwise, that something awfully bad was going to happen to her if she went inside that space ship. "Maybe I shouldn't go inside. Maybe I should wait until tomorrow and get Goku or someone to come with me." She thought outloud. But, in spite herself, she felt her legs moving towards the door of the spaceship. "Aw Well. It's all worth this to find Vegeta again." She said, taking a deep breath and stepping inside.  
  
It was well kept inside of the space ship, like someone very tidy had been the boss of this space ship. Bulma could smell something strange inside of it, though. *It doesn't matter. I need to find Vegeta and get out. *  
  
Bulma wasn't thinking about the fact that maybe there were some other people inside of the space ship when she yelled Vegeta's name.  
  
"VEGETA!"  
  
* * * * * *  
  
It just so happens that as Bulma was being an idiot and calling out Vegeta's name, Zarbon and Dodoria were nearby and heard the calls of a woman. They both exchanged glances.  
  
"Should we awake Master Freeza?" Zarbon asked Dodoria.  
  
"No. Let's take care of it ourselves. I think it's that same weak, human woman that I was chasing before. It sounds just like her." Dodoria explained. "I have a little business to finish with her. Let's go get her."  
  
Zarbon and Dodoria started to wonder in the direction of Bulma's screams for Vegeta.  
  
"But how come she wants Vegeta?" Zarbon asked. "Are they friends or something? Did Vegeta do something to her?" The thought that maybe they were lovers popped brightly into Zarbon's mind, but he excused it.  
  
"No, I think she wants her Dragonball back. Vegeta stole it from her." Dodoria said.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
"VEGETA!"  
  
Bulma gave up after calling her Prince Charming's name for a full ten minutes.  
  
"Oh, what's the point? He's either very deeply asleep or not here at all!" She exclaimed in frustration. "I shouldn't have even come in here, I have no business! What if there are some other people in here that could hurt me? Like that pink alien that chased me into the canyon?"  
  
Bulma was about to turn and leave when she heard footsteps behind her.  
  
Bulma was too frightened to move. "Hello? Vegeta, is that you?" She asked. "Please don't hurt me, I just came to see you to-"  
  
"I'm not Vegeta, lady. Just shut up and don't put up a fight, or I'll kill you."  
  
Bulma turned around and for a split second saw the pink alien that had chased her down the canyon and someone else. "AHH--*MUUPHH! *" She screamed, as Dodoria clamped a hand over her mouth to shut her up. Bulma was filled with fear, scared so bad that she was crying.  
  
"Please don't hurt me!" She begged, muffled. "I was just looking for someone, I didn't mean any harm-"  
  
"Tell me, why were you looking for Vegeta?" Zarbon demanded. "WHY?"  
  
Bulma was about to tell him that it was because she thought she was in love with him, but then remembered the bruises all over Vegeta's face. *Maybe these are the people that beat him. Maybe they'll beat him even more if I tell them-- * Bulma felt her hair being yanked so hard that her eyes watered. She shrieked. "Please, please let me go! I'll go right away, and I won't look for Vegeta anymore-"  
  
"Answer my question!"  
  
Bulma gulped. *I can just make up a fast lie. * She thought, so that was exactly what she did. "I came back for my Dragonball. He took it from me, and I want it back. But I don't HAVE to have to have it back-"  
  
"No, you don't, because that Dragonball is now officially property of Master Freeza." Dodoria said. "And because you decided to come in here and disturb us, we're taking you prisoner."  
  
Bulma's heart sank into her stomach, and she almost started to bawl like a baby. She would never be able to find Vegeta if they took her prisoner! Then again, maybe . . . Maybe she'd get to see him if she were a prisoner! Then, maybe he'd set her free . . . or maybe not. She couldn't take the chance of staying locked up in this musty old space ship forever and beaten like Vegeta was.  
  
"NOOO!" She shouted, wrenching her arms away from the alien's grasp. She began to sprint away, towards the exit of the space ship.  
  
"HEY! COME BACK HERE!" Bulma heard behind her as she ran. But she wasn't going to stop. Being held prisoner was not the way to save Vegeta from this hell. That was something she was bound determined to do, come hell or high water. Save Vegeta.  
  
Bulma didn't dare look back as she ran, finally jumping out the door. But as she jumped, she felt someone grab her with strong arms around her waist painfully. "Ow!" She shrieked, finding her feet dangling off the ground. She looked into the face of her captor and noticed it wasn't the pink monster anymore but the green one.  
  
"Let me go!" She ordered, biting, kicking, and screaming. But none of it worked, and she felt the alien cup a hand over her mouth to shut her up. *Is this the end? Is this how I'm going to die? * She thought, struggling a little bit more. But none of it worked. She was going to be taken prisoner by 'Master Freeza,' and treated just like Vegeta was. Her and Vegeta would get to live together, but beat . . .  
  
"NOO!" Bulma screamed, thinking this. Her scream came out loud even though it was muffled by Zarbon's hand. She struggled even more, yanking at his arm and arching her back. "HELP ME! SOMEONE HELP ME! HELP!" She screamed. "PLEASE!"  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Vegeta was in his deep sleep on the other side of the space ship when he heard a scream. It was an annoying sounding scream, and in a voice he had heard before. It was Bulma! Vegeta stood up, ignoring his tail, which was now twitching so much it hurt.  
  
"What is she doing here . . . and why is she screaming?" He said to himself, listening to her scream for help. He started to leisurely walk around to the front of the space ship, secretly excited. *Yes! I can sleep again! * He thought, starting to run. But it wasn't the picture that he was hoping to see. He hoped to see Bulma just standing there, with a smile on her face and looking as pretty as she had the day that he met her.  
  
But instead, he saw her being held by Zarbon, who was trying to drag her inside the ship despite her screams for help. "What the-" He said, stepping forward a bit.  
  
Bulma saw Vegeta. "Vegeta!" She said, happily. "It's you! Please help me, please-" She shut up when Zarbon slapped her.  
  
"What are you doing?" Vegeta asked Zarbon, squinting his eyes up.  
  
Zarbon shrugged. "She was in the ship, so I'm taking her captive." He said. "She said she was looking for you for her Dragonball."  
  
Vegeta exchanged a glance with Bulma, who slowly shook her head, which meant that was not the reason she'd come back. Vegeta crossed his arms. "Do you really think that we have USE for a human woman? What's the point in taking her captive just to hear her scream? She's of no harm to us. We could just as easily kill her as to take her prisoner. So, you see, there's really no point."  
  
Bulma gasped. *Oh, sure, put the idea in his head to kill me. * She thought, but still decided that Vegeta knew what he was doing. She had trust in Vegeta.  
  
"Okay, I'll kill her then." Zarbon said, getting a powerball ready in his hand.  
  
Vegeta grew startled. "N-No!" He said.  
  
Zarbon's head snapped to Vegeta. "What? What's your problem now?"  
  
Vegeta cleared his throat. "Um . . . I want to do it." He said with a smirk. As he started to think this, his tail twitched really hard, so hard he looked foolish. Vegeta grabbed it and held it with both hands, trying his best to look serious. "I haven't gotten to kill anything in a long while."  
  
He stepped forward, until he was standing in front of Bulma directly. Vegeta felt adrenaline rush in his body, ending with his tail swinging back and forth in his hands. Vegeta grunted and grabbed onto it harder, almost falling on his ass.  
  
"What's wrong with you? You're acting . . . funny." Zarbon said.  
  
Vegeta shrugged, and ran a hand through his hair. "Nothing." He said. "There is nothing wrong with me. I guess I'm just excited to . . . Get to kill her." He reached out and grabbed Bulma by the arm then yanked her over to him.  
  
"Ow!" Bulma screamed. She couldn't help but notice Vegeta release his grip on her a little bit when she said this.  
  
"Fine. You can kill her." Zarbon said. "But next time . . . I get to kill." He then walked back into the space ship and shut the door.  
  
* * * * *  
  
As soon as Zarbon went back inside, Bulma couldn't help herself. She grabbed Vegeta and hugged him really hard, crying into his chest.  
  
"Oh, Vegeta . . . Please, please don't kill me, please . . ." She wailed. "Don't! I didn't come back for the Dragonball, I came back because-"  
  
Vegeta stepped back away from her, and brushed her tears off of his armor. "Yes, yes, yes. I know why you came back." He said, crossing his arms. "And no, I don't think I'm going to kill you. Don't know why, though." He had to grab his tail again as it waved back and forth, revealing his obvious horniness.  
  
"T-T-Thank you so much for saving me." Bulma said, shuffling her feet. She didn't know what to say to him. She was at a loss of words.  
  
They stood there in silence for a long time.  
  
"I needed to see you again." Bulma said to Vegeta, looking up into his eyes with tears in her own ocean blue ones. "I couldn't stop thinking about you, couldn't stop wondering about those bruises on your face . . . but now I know."  
  
Vegeta looked at the ground. "Uh . . . Yes. You're right, that is how I got the bruises on my face." He admitted.  
  
He had to push himself not to hug this woman. So sympathetic over his feelings, like he'd never been over hers. He looked up when he saw Bulma inching towards him.  
  
"It's okay." She reassured. "You'll get away somehow, someday. I promise. You're too strong willed of a person to let this happen to you, right?"  
  
Vegeta snarled a little bit. "This is none of your business." He said. "Just go home. I've been your knight in shining armor and saved you, now you can go home and-"  
  
But he found himself not able to finish his sentence when Bulma grabbed his tail, which had been twitching and waving around like mad. She was kind of smiling at it, as if it had revealed everything to her, as it had. Vegeta's eyes widened and his cheeks bloomed red with embarrassment. "I-"  
  
Bulma smiled. "You seem to be having some problems here. But I can help you." Bulma said.  
  
Vegeta took his tail out of her hand calmly. "I can get it under control." He said. "It's nothing."  
  
Bulma shrugged. "All right, but if you want to sleep anytime soon tonight . . . I suggest you let me help. Please? I've been wanting to talk to you and see you ever since I first met you-"  
  
Vegeta sighed and dropped his hands to his sides. He wanted to tell her no and to get lost; but something in his mind wouldn't let him tell her no. This was the time he'd been waiting for all night. He wasn't going to let her get away.  
  
"Fine." He said, crossing his arms. "But make it quick. I'm tired."  
  
Bulma grabbed his hand and led him around to the back of the ship, where she asked him to sit down at the base of the tree. When he obeyed, she sat down beside him. "Okay. I want you to tell me about those bruises, and why you let them beat you." Bulma said. "Once you tell me that, then I'll go home and leave you alone. I just have to know, though."  
  
Vegeta looked at the beautiful woman's face. Should he tell her something that wasn't even her business? He crossed his arms tightly across his chest. "I guess I should tell you, because you already know enough." He said. "But it'll be hard . . ."  
  
Bulma leaned closer to him. "Go ahead and tell me. I'm sure that It'll make you feel much better, and maybe you'll have more of a need to open up to other people." She tightened her ponytail. Never in her life had she more felt like kissing somebody.  
  
Vegeta opened his mouth to start, but was interrupted by Bulma.  
  
"Vegeta, just forget telling me. I can tell that it bothers you to talk about it." Bulma admitted. "I just wanted to ask you something is half the reason I came back."  
  
Vegeta snapped his gaze up to her, ready for her to drop the bomb. "Yes?"  
  
Bulma exhaled. "I just wanted to know if you felt anything when you first saw me."  
  
Vegeta was shocked. "What do you mean?" He asked. "You mean anything? I felt anger-"  
  
"No! I mean, did you feel affection? Did you feel the feeling that you might want to spend your life with me? Did you feel that feeling in the pit of your stomach like you were falling?" Bulma asked, barraging him with questions.  
  
Vegeta just sat there for a moment, blinking his onyx-colored eyes. He then smirked. "Affection? How could I feel affection for someone I don't even know, yet alone an Earth Woman! We have our differences. How come you're even asking me this? I simply wanted your Dragonball, and you gave it to me, yatata yatata yatata. That's all." He said.  
  
"But I felt something for you!"  
  
Vegeta heard this line, and it was as if his whole world froze. She had feelings for him? At first sight?  
  
Vegeta turned his face away. "Bulma, I-" He said. He didn't want to tell her about his feelings for her. It would be a sacrifice to his pride, his honor . . . everything that he stood for. But what SHOULD he tell her? A complete lie? Lying was something that Saiyans' didn't like to do, so he didn't think he had the right to lie. So, in a voice that might fit a mouse, he said, 'I felt something . . .'  
  
Bulma leaned closer. "What?" She asked.  
  
Vegeta didn't answer. He was too ashamed. "You heard what I said." He snapped, looking the opposite direction from her. "I don't know what happened, what I saw in you, but . . . something was there. And it never should have happened, I never should have LET it happen, I should have just killed you on the spot . . ."  
  
"But Vegeta, you didn't and that's all that matters. I don't care what you would have done; I care what you did do. And that's save my life twice, when you could have left me to die. That doesn't sound like just caring to me . . . that sounds like love." Bulma explained to Vegeta.  
  
Vegeta shrugged. "I don't know, but that could have been why my tail has been so weird lately . . . when a saiyan is excited, that always happens . . ."  
  
Bulma smiled. " I don't want you to worry about being beaten anymore, Vegeta." Bulma said. "I'm going to help you get away. I fell in love with you at first sight; and I just want you to be happy. And to get you happy, I'll get you away."  
  
Vegeta's eyes widened. "B-Bulma, no! We can't . . . have a relationship." He said. "If I did, and Freeza were to find out . . . He'd kill me, Bulma. And if Zarbon or Dodoria were to see us, they'd tell Master Freeza and that would be the end. I think it's best if we just stay away from each other forever." He was silent. "I would kill you if I had the heart right now to do it. So just go, and run away, before I do."  
  
Bulma stayed sitting there. "I can't run, Vegeta. You know it would make you happy, and then you might actually have a life besides being beat."  
  
Vegeta growled and pulled himself to his feet. "Bulma, I told you that I can't! It's not because I don't want to . . . it's because I CAN'T! He'd kill me!"  
  
"Then we could hide it."  
  
"How easy is it to hide love from three people who are literally watching you every move you make? It sounds so easy to you, Bulma, because you don't live the way that I do. I can't just . . . conduct a secret affair under Freeza's eye because he'd eventually catch me. And then, I wouldn't be alive anymore. He'd probably cut off my head the minute he saw us together." He sighed deeply. "I think you should stop egging on about it and go on with your life. Just forget about me."  
  
"But I could never forget about you, Vegeta." Bulma said, looking at him with pleading eyes and leaning a little bit closer. "Never, as long as I live. I couldn't live knowing that I didn't help you escape."  
  
Vegeta started to slowly walk off away from Bulma, with his arms crossed.  
  
Bulma got up to follow him. "Don't walk away from me Vegeta, please." She pleaded, grabbing his shoulder. "That's happened to me too many times before."  
  
Vegeta sighed, as if thinking about Bulma's proposition. *She's crazy, does she not realize the situation that I'm in at all? * He thought. He turned back around to face her. "Bulma . . . what if he were to find out?"  
  
Bulma smiled at Vegeta. "He won't, Vegeta. He'll never have to know. We can keep away from him, and be in secret-"  
  
"But Zarbon and Dodoria, they watch me all of the time! If one of them were to find out, they'd tell Freeza, and he'd kill me . . . and possibly you. Would you want to die, Bulma?"  
  
"He wouldn't kill me."  
  
"But . . . he'd kill me . . ."  
  
Bulma knew how Vegeta felt about the situation, and realized what a horrible one it was. But he had to realize that being scared was not the way to get away from Freeza. Being brave was. Bulma walked up closer to him.  
  
"But Vegeta . . . For a first tip, being scared is not the way to solve this problem." She said. "Being brave is, and taking chances . . . And then maybe he'll let you go someday."  
  
"But not without a fight!"  
  
Bulma leaned in closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and touching her nose to his. "If he wants a fight . . . A fight is what we'll give him." She murmured.  
  
Vegeta stared at her for a second, before smirking a little bit. *This is against what all Saiyan's stand for-but Aw well. I can sacrifice my pride on this one little thing. * He thought. "We'll fight until the end." He said softly, leaning in to lock lips with Bulma for the first time, the thing he'd been longing to do ever since he first saw her.  
  
End of chappy four. Did you like it? I'm sorry it was a little bit long, but the next chapter won't be like this. In the next chapter, what do Bulma and Vegeta do to hide their love from Freeza, and what risks do they take? Find out in the next chapter!  
  
Luv, luvssaintbernards 


	5. Vegeta gets Badly Beaten

Chapter the Fifth  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z or any other trademarked materials in this fanfiction.  
  
Vegeta could have killed himself without the help of Freeza at that moment. Why had he told her yes? Why was he risking his life for some human woman whom he wasn't even sure he wanted to spend any time with? Yet, there was that part inside of him that was telling him to go with it, that he loved her, and that he should risk his life for the love of her. And that's exactly why he thought himself crazy.  
  
Bulma pulled away from Vegeta, ending the first kiss they'd shared in their relationship. "Vegeta . . . you don't know how glad I am to hear that you are finally learning to break away, but . . . I have to go home now to sleep. It's about four in the morning, and my parents will be wondering where I am." She said.  
  
Vegeta nodded. "Okay." He said.  
  
Bulma leaned in and gave him a kiss, pushing his lips into hers as hard as she could. "Okay, bye, Vegeta." She started to walk away towards her flying machine, but then remembered something. "Oh, Vegeta, can you meet me tomorrow at 12:00 PM beside this space ship? I'd love to see you again." She pleaded.  
  
Vegeta crossed his arms, then smirked. "Yes. I think I could do that, unless something comes up. I'll try to lie up a good reason to Freeza as to why I'll be gone." He stepped forward a little bit. It was obvious that his body wanted a little bit more.  
  
Bulma came forward and gave him one last kiss for that night.  
  
Vegeta's body went haywire. His tail, which he had managed to calm down somewhat, came down and wrapped around Bulma's slender body. *Dammit! * Vegeta thought, stomping a foot slightly. He felt Bulma bring a hand down and place it on his tail as they kissed. She then pulled away, peeling his tail from around her. She held it in one hand.  
  
"Ah-hah. I knew you really wanted to kiss me." She said.  
  
Vegeta blushed. "Uh . . . Yes. Now, I think you'd better leave before Zarbon comes out and wonders what's taking me so long. He's nosy like that, you know."  
  
Bulma's face grew frantic. "Oh yeah! Bye!" She waved, then took off at a run towards her flying machine.  
  
Vegeta didn't say bye. He simply stared after her flying machine as it went off, with his arms crossed and his cheeks red with embarrassment. *Why did I do that? I know I'm just risking my life! * He thought, as he sat back down against his tree.  
  
Zarbon came out. "I didn't hear any ki blasts, Vegeta! What's going on, and where's the girl? If you didn't have the heart to kill her, then I will!"  
  
Vegeta smirked. "No worries, Zarbon. I rung her neck and through her in the . . . river. I killed her, so you shouldn't be pecking around in my business." He stood up on two feet to walk away, but Zarbon violently grabbed his arm. Vegeta froze in place. "What are you doing?" He demanded, knowing very well what was coming to him for no reason at all. Or, maybe because of the way he had talked to Zarbon.  
  
"I'm tired of your smart mouth." Zarbon growled at him.  
  
Vegeta whirled around, shaking with anger/fear of what was about to happen to him. It always scared him when he knew he was about to get beat, and he just hoped that Zarbon didn't take him to Freeza to get beaten. But God wasn't with him this time, and Zarbon took strong hold of Vegeta's wrist.  
  
"You're coming with me. I know you didn't kill that girl, and I'm telling Master Freeza. I'm also going to tell him about the disrespect you've been treating Dodoria and I with." He growled at Vegeta.  
  
Vegeta didn't say anything; he just stared at Zarbon with anger in his eyes. Why didn't they live like he did? Why didn't they get beat? More than anything, he just wished that it would be them instead of he. He hated them so much.  
  
"You're hurting me!" He growled at Zarbon, taking note of his fingernails digging into his arm. He started trying to break free, hoping he could run away and fly off, and then Zarbon would forget about it. But he wasn't that lucky. Zarbon started to drag him into the ship, Vegeta struggling all of the way. But, like always, Zarbon won, and Vegeta found himself thrown into Freeza's quarters against his will.  
  
"Lord Freeza, Vegeta lied to me. We found this girl in the ship, and he said he'd kill her himself, and he never did. He let her go. And, he's been treating Dodoria and I with disrespect." He tattled.  
  
Vegeta spat at Zarbon's heels as he left the room and shut the door, leaving him with Freeza. *Right now's my chance to make an excuse for being gone tomorrow. * He thought. *Freeza will think that I killed her. He knows that I give no mercy . . . usually. He won't believe Zarbon. * Vegeta stood up, looking confident. "Master Freeza, I—"  
  
When he saw Freeza's tail flicking impatiently, he knew that Zarbon had picked the wrong time to put him in there. He knew that this would be a long, painful night. "Vegeta, I don't want to hear you out until I'm good and ready." He growled. "You'd do good to shut your mouth."  
  
Vegeta prayed that his body wouldn't start going haywire for Bulma while he talked to Freeza, because he knew how much Freeza was educated about Saiyan body language.  
  
"I thought you were actually shaping up when you brought me that Dragonball." Freeza snarled, taking a step closer to Vegeta. He smirked a little bit when Vegeta took a step backward, obviously scared of him. But whenever Freeza looked into his eyes he could see Vegeta's future of rebellion. Just like his father. And, Vegeta's rebellion would end the same way too. With death.  
  
"Master Freeza, I did too kill the girl!" Vegeta shouted. He jutted a thumb towards the door. "Zarbon's lying, he doesn't know anything about it at all! He wasn't outside when I was with her—"  
  
Freeza whipped Vegeta across the face with his tail, making Vegeta scream with pain until his throat hurt. Vegeta spread his hands over his face as he felt the blood gush out. A single tear leaked out of his eye—but he only allowed that. He stood up strong and tall against Freeza now.  
  
"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!" Freeza yelled at Vegeta, coming over and kicking him in the stomach.  
  
Vegeta crumpled up on the floor, one hand grabbing his stomach and the other gripping his stinging and burning face. Spit and blood dribbled out of his mouth and plopped onto the cold floor. Vegeta couldn't control his temper anymore. "STOP IT, JUST STOP! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE, I'M TIRED OF BEING BEAT, JUST STOP IT!" He roared, pulling himself to his knees. He bowed his head and looked at the ground. *Great, now things are about to get worse. Stupid temper! * He thought.  
  
Freeza stepped in front of the pitiful image that was now all crumpled up on the floor and close to tears of pain. Freeza knew that Vegeta's spirited nature wouldn't allow this any longer, and that pretty soon Vegeta wouldn't be taking his beatings anymore without a fight. But somewhere deep in Freeza's cold heart, he felt sorry for Vegeta. Just a little. It was this part of Freeza that caused him to want to reason with Vegeta, ask him what he had been about to say when Freeza had beaten him.  
  
"What were you going to say?" He demanded.  
  
Vegeta got himself together. "Uh—I—" He stuttered, scared to say anything, for fear it would bring on another viscous beating. He just looked down at the floor, clutching his stomach and hoping that another blow wouldn't be inflicted on him. You could never really tell with Freeza. He coughed and blood came flying onto the pavement.  
  
"I asked you a question. Do you want to be hit again?" Freeza asked him.  
  
Vegeta pulled himself into the sitting position, taking deep note of the nausea he was now feeling due to the punch in the gut, and the fact that he couldn't see out of his left eye because of the blood running in it. "Zarbon wasn't even out there with me and Bulma—I mean the girl." Vegeta answered.  
  
Freeza looked at Vegeta questioningly. *How did he know the girl's name? Why would the girl tell him her name when he was killing her? * Freeza thought. He smirked, then chuckled.  
  
Vegeta's heart dropped into his stomach when he heard Freeza laugh, that icy chuckle. It always meant something bad was going to happen.  
  
"Vegeta, you're a riot."  
  
It wasn't very much longer until Vegeta felt Freeza grab him painfully by the chin and yank his head up, causing him to yelp. "What?" He asked, automatically knowing that saying Bulma's name had been a dire mistake on his part. "How do you know the girl's name if you simply just killed her? Huh?" Freeza asked. "Oh, I'll bet you didn't kill her. You let her go, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU!"  
  
Vegeta gulped. "Master Freeza, I'm quite sure that you know me better than that." He stated. "I did not keep her alive, I'd never do that." He said. He gently managed to yank his face away from Freeza's grip. "I know her name because I'd met her before."  
  
"How?"  
  
Vegeta gulped. "Well, Because I got that Dragonball from her."  
  
"But why would she tell you her name?"  
  
Vegeta was dumbfounded. He didn't know what to say to Freeza on this question. He just stood up on shaky legs and hung his head. He was ashamed that he let himself take these beatings like this, when he would never in his right mind let anyone else beat him. "I have no answer to that." He boldly stated, crossing his arms and staring at Freeza straight in the eye.  
  
Freeza simply stared at him, flicking that long and whip-like tail in the way he usually did when he was irritated with someone. But he didn't inflict any beatings on Vegeta right now. He simply decided to reason with Vegeta. "Vegeta, I'm going to excuse this for now. I'm quite sure you didn't let the girl go, and Zarbon should have known that. It's not your nature to let people go. You're ruthless, Vegeta."  
  
Vegeta found himself smirking.  
  
"And, as for the disrespect to Zarbon and Dodoria . . . You even slip at me sometimes. I'm just going to let that one go, but one more report . . . And I'll kill you. You know that they and I are your Masters, and you must respect us. You are a slave." Freeza said, telling Vegeta as If he didn't already know.  
  
Before Freeza could walk away, Vegeta decided to make his excuse for being gone the next day. "Master Freeza!" He shouted.  
  
Freeza turned around.  
  
"I . . . tomorrow, I'm going to be looking for Dragonballs. Is that Okay?" He asked. "I probably won't be here at all . . ."  
  
"Yes that's fine. As long as you're back before dark."  
  
When Freeza walked away, Vegeta wondered into the place where he slept and was kept when he was usually not out doing something (A dark room with only an uncomfortable cot, a toilet and a bench) and went to sleep eventually in happiness of getting to see Bulma again the following day without a fuss.  
  
* * * * * * * * *  
  
Bulma found herself awake the next day in the middle of the floor, with her pony-tail still in and her clothing still on from when she had went to visit Vegeta. She had fallen asleep in the middle of the floor from being so tired, and now she was awake. She couldn't stop thinking about the night before, and the wonderful events that had happened. Vegeta saving her life, Vegeta's body hungering for her. It was all too good to be true.  
  
She yawned and stretched, then took her ponytail down and brushed her medium length hair out by the mirror. Her make-up was still all smeared where Vegeta had kissed her, and she could almost swear that her legs still itched from where Vegeta's tail had touched them. She shuddered just thinking about him, and how today at twelve she would get to see him again. Looking at her watch, that was three hours away. She didn't think she could wait that long.  
  
"Oh, Vegeta, if only you were able to persuade Freeza to let you come out today . . . " She said to herself, as she put a barrette in her hair. She couldn't even imagine how Vegeta would look when she was to see him today from Freeza beating him, and she wasn't even expecting what would happen to him because of it.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Vegeta awoke on the uncomfortable cot about an hour later than Bulma had woke up, immediately thinking about how he would get to see her today. Throbbing pain immediately shot up his face, and his stomach's being nauseous was enough to kill anyone. "But all of this will be healed today at twelve." He said to himself, getting up and stretching his back, legs, and arms. He couldn't help but notice his anxiousness to see Bulma was making his tail wave around and twitch again, but Vegeta couldn't care less about that right now. He was just happy to be out of the ship for all day, away from Freeza's beatings and everything else.  
  
He went and looked into the small, cracked mirror on the wall. His reflection was now even worse than it had been when he'd looked into the make-up mirror. Now, He had a huge cut across his face that was oozing something he couldn't describe. He was sure that if he lifted his shirt he'd see a disgusting, black bruise on his stomach, but he decided it was best not to look. He knew something bad had resorted from the kick because of the way that he had been feeling lately, all nauseous and light-headed.  
  
Vegeta slipped into the small and rusty shower stall that Freeza had provided him with that had only cold water, stripped, and turned it on. Even though the cold water on his skin caused him to shiver it still refreshed him somewhat. He had no shampoo; just the water and a small bar of uncomfortable, scratchy soap that left more light scratches on his body than it did kill germs. But, Vegeta didn't care. He just wanted to be nice and clean for his meeting with Bulma.  
  
When Vegeta was in the middle of his shower, he heard someone unlock the door of his chambers and come inside. "I'm in the shower, can't you just—" He began, but shut his mouth. He remembered Freeza's warning. "Who is it!" He shouted.  
  
"I HAVE A BONE TO PICK WITH YOU, VEGETA!"  
  
Vegeta immediately knew that it was Zarbon from the accent in the voice. "Bone to pick with me? Why?" He asked. "Didn't you already pick your bone with me? You told on me, and got me beaten—"  
  
"GET YOUR CLOTHES ON AND COME OUT HERE! I DON'T WANT ANY LIP FROM YOU!"  
  
Even though Vegeta wore a smirk on his face his body was trembling from head to tail. He obediently got out and put his clothes and armor on, then came out to face Zarbon. "What?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest. *Crap, he probably knows me better than this. He knows that I wouldn't voluntarily go and look for Dragonballs, it's too hard. * He thought.  
  
This was exactly the point that Zarbon wanted to stress.  
  
"Tell me what's up with you, Vegeta." He ordered. "I know that something's going on, because you wouldn't ask to go and look for Dragonballs like Lord Freeza told me you did."  
  
Vegeta shrugged. "And, why are you taking care of it? If Master Freeza thought it was such a problem, wouldn't he come and talk to me about it? Rather talk to me up close?" He asked, jabbing a finger at the cut across his face.  
  
"Didn't I say that I didn't want any lip from you? Now tell me, or I'll beat you—"  
  
Vegeta was silent. "I have nothing to tell. I told Master Freeza the reason why I was going and he believes me. That means you should too. Master Freeza would probably kill you for getting on my case right now."  
  
"Actually he's the one who told me to get on your case."  
  
Vegeta just stared at Zarbon with silence. "Like I said, I have nothing to tell."  
  
Zarbon stared at Vegeta for a while more before turning on one heel and walking off, but not without giving Vegeta a look of pure hatred. Vegeta smirked. "He's going to be the first one to find out, if anyone does." Vegeta said to himself, walking out of the room a little bit after Zarbon to tell Freeza that he was leaving.  
  
* * * * * * * * * *  
  
After carefully looking around for any of the aliens Bulma landed her flying machine not very far from where Freeza's ship lay, but she didn't see Vegeta yet. "He's probably still inside, getting ready or making up an excuse for coming with me." Bulma thought. She planned on once Vegeta got out; they'd go somewhere else so that Freeza or his minions wouldn't spy them. But what Vegeta had said about the two aliens that had tried to capture her lurking around still scared her a bit for Vegeta's life. What if they did find them together? Would Vegeta really be violently killed?  
  
Before Bulma had left today, she had to sneak away from Goku and Krillin to get here. After she'd told them about her adventures with Zarbon and Dodoria they'd told her not to go anywhere else, but she couldn't stand staying at home and not seeing Vegeta again. She had to see if anything else had happened to him since last night.  
  
When Vegeta came staggering out (Bulma took deep note of the way he was staggering, almost as if it hurt to walk) Bulma noticed the huge cut across his face. She ran up to him and jumped into his arms, almost knocking Vegeta down with her weight. She pressed her lips onto his and gave him a kiss. Vegeta returned her kiss with passion.  
  
"Vegeta . . . what happened to your face?" Bulma asked her lover, staring at the deep cut that was now visible across his face.  
  
"One guess." Vegeta remarked.  
  
Bulma stared at him for a moment before bursting into tears and hugging him really tight around his strong and firm neck. "He beat you again, didn't he? Why, Vegeta, why? Why did he do it? Was there a reason, or—"  
  
Vegeta removed her from him, being very careful not to hurt her. "No, he thought there was a reason. He thought I let you go, just like I did." When he saw Bulma's face break back out into tears, he smirked a bit. "Shut up, there's no reason to cry about it. I'm perfectly fine. I just got a little scratch."  
  
After Vegeta said this, he coughed into his hand from the kick in the stomach the previous day. He was still gagging and coughing up blood from that. He was sure there was something wrong, but if it was serious, he thought he'd already be dead. But he was dead wrong.  
  
"Are you alright?" Bulma asked.  
  
Vegeta nodded. "Hope so." He said. "Now come on, we'd better get away from here before Freeza or the others come out and see me with you. Did you have somewhere in particular we should go today, or can we just fly around and look for someplace?"  
  
Bulma hugged him, laying her head on his chest. "I couldn't. I know that you know Zarbon and Dodoria better than I do, so you'd probably think of the best place." She said. "But, I thought that we could go someplace deep in the woods behind Capsule Corporation. There, the trees are thick so nobody could see us from above, and somebody would have to dodge a lot of trees to find us."  
  
Vegeta nodded. "Sounds good." He said.  
  
Bulma grabbed his hand and started to drag him towards the flying machine. "I'll drive, because I'm pretty sure that you do not know how." She said.  
  
Vegeta kept his feet firm on the ground. "Woman, it'd be easier for me to just carry you. I'm sure that flying machine doesn't go faster than a Saiyan."  
  
Bulma smiled. "I'd like that Vegeta." She said, putting her flying machine back into the capsule and pocketing it. "But before we go, there's something I'd like to know."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"What did you tell Freeza to make him let you come? If he rules with as much tightness as you say that he does, than how come he let you come? It must have been something genius." She walked over to him and stared into his eyes, showing him that she wanted the truth, even though it may not be that hard for Vegeta to give it to her.  
  
"Oh, I told him that I'd be looking for Dragonballs." Vegeta said, grabbing Bulma and picking her up baby-style. "If I don't come back with Dragonballs, I don't know what will happen, but hopefully Freeza won't beat me." He started to fly.  
  
Bulma's mind was raving with questions. Before she could stop herself, she had started to chew Vegeta out for this. "VEGETA, YOU IDIOT! WHAT IF YOU DON'T FIND A DRAGONBALL AND HE BEATS YOU?" She hollered, about ready to beat him herself. "Couldn't you have made up a better lie than you did? Now you're in trouble, because I don't have anymore Dragonballs!" And that was a lie. Bulma knew where Goku and Krillin had hidden the Dragonballs, but she knew that if Vegeta got hold of them, Freeza would take them from him and make a devastating wish. Even though she loved him, Vegeta was EVIL.  
  
Vegeta snarled. "Shut your mouth, woman! I made up the best lie that I could, and don't you think that's better than not being here right now?" He didn't let Bulma answer his question before he asked another one. "Where's the place you want me to take you at?"  
  
Bulma, still a little bit upset and worried for her lover, pointed north. "Just a little bit North. It's the woods that should be past a big building that has the word 'Capsule Corporation' on it." She said. "Anyplace that's not too heavily wooded should do."  
  
* * * * * * * * *  
  
Soon Vegeta saw a place in the woods and landed, being very careful not to hurt Bulma when he put her down on the ground and released her. As soon as he did this though, she was on him again and was kissing him fiercely. He went with it for a while; then eventually pushed her away and asked her what the hell was wrong.  
  
"I know that you risked your life to come here." She said, kissing him again, "But I also know that you have to go back. When?" She hugged him really tight, and his tail wrapped around her waist to her delight.  
  
"I have to be back by dark, meaning Freeza will probably start sending out Zarbon and Dodoria to come look for me by four or five. Freeza's like that." Vegeta responded, hugging her back. He couldn't help thinking that maybe them being together would resort into mating, but he wouldn't let that happen. He may be letting himself be her lover; but never would he decide to mate with her. That was way against the codes of Saiyan pride.  
  
Bulma placed a hand on his tail and stroked it, sending noticeable tingles up the Saiyan's body. She knew that a Saiyan's tail was the most sensitive part of the body, therefore it could make due when having sex was just out of the question.  
  
Vegeta smiled as his tail went wacky and hugged her up to him tighter. As Bulma continued to stroke it, it twitched and waved back and forth almost without control. Bulma had to literally hold on to it to keep it still, and to keep it from whapping her or Vegeta in the face.  
  
Vegeta thought he was all right, and that maybe this moment would last forever, when the sudden urge to gag and cough sprouted into his throat, and the wave of nausea returned. He coughed out blood into his hand, gagging and having to double over.  
  
Bulma shrieked. "VEGETA! OH MY GOD!" She shouted, patting his back. "What's wrong?"  
  
When Vegeta stopped coughing he answered her. "Freeza kicked me in the stomach last night." He said. "I've been coughing up blood ever since, and—"  
  
Bulma hugged Vegeta really tight. "Vegeta, I can't take seeing you like this anymore." She bawled. "I'm going to get you away from Freeza, if it's the last thing I do."  
  
Vegeta smiled, but he wasn't so sure. He wasn't sure if he'd ever get away from him.  
  
End of chappy five.  
  
R and R, and the next chapter really doesn't have anything important that I need to say, but It'll be just as good! 


	6. Vegeta stays out too long

Chapter the sixth  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z or any other trademarked materials in this fanfiction.  
  
As the evening wore to an end, it got closer and closer to nighttime without Vegeta noticing as he and Bulma fooled around, kissed, and even touched each other in places lovers shouldn't touch. But, Vegeta didn't know the heap of trouble he was getting himself in, as he foolishly didn't watch the sun going down.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"WHERE IS HE?" Freeza yelled, sending Zarbon tumbling back a few feet. Vegeta had been gone too long, and was now staying longer than Freeza had said he could be gone. "I'm going to kill him!" He shrieked.  
  
"I'm sorry Lord Freeza . . . Do you want me to go out and look for him?" Zarbon asked, hoping to calm his Master. When Freeza got mad, ANYONE could die.  
  
Freeza breathed deeply for a few minutes. "Sure. Go out and find him. And when you DO find him . . . Tell him that he will start to listen to me, and that he's on ration for two weeks, then bring him to me. I need to . . . talk to him. Talk to him up close." Freeza growled, stalking out of the room.  
  
Zarbon gulped. He knew what Freeza meant by 'talk to him up close.'  
  
* * * * *  
  
Vegeta broke away from Bulma's kiss. "Woman . . . I'm getting kind of hungry. Do you have anything to eat?" He asked.  
  
Bulma smiled and nodded. "Oh sure." Her make-up was smeared from making out with Vegeta, and he had make-up all over his face. Bulma dug out some chips for him. "Does Freeza not let you eat or something? Because if he doesn't, always come to me. I'll give you something to eat."  
  
Vegeta smirked, and was about to dig into the chips, when something hit him. It was dark outside! He dropped the chip in his hand to the ground in fear. "No . . . Oh, No . . ."  
  
Bulma leaned forward. "What's wrong? Is something wrong?" She asked.  
  
But Vegeta didn't answer her. Instead, he pulled her to her feet by her wrist.  
  
"Ow! What was that for?!" Bulma demanded.  
  
Vegeta pushed her away. "Hide!" He exclaimed, pushing her again. "Hide, please! Run away, try to get somewhere safe, just don't stay here—"  
  
Bulma stopped listening about there. She realized the expression of fear on Vegeta's face as he tried to push her away and she immediately knew that something was up. "What's the matter?" She asked, squinting her eyes up. She tried to slip her arms around his waist, but instead he grabbed her face and kissed her as hard as he could.  
  
"RUN!" He ordered, more firmly now. "He's coming! Zarbon's coming!"  
  
Bulma leaned in and kissed Vegeta. "But I don't want to leave you here! He'll beat you for staying out late, you know that he will—" By now she had burst into tears. "I don't want you to have to take that alone, Vegeta . . . Please . . . Run with me . . ."  
  
Vegeta pulled her off of him and shook her. "Listen to me, God Dammit! Don't worry about me, I'll be fine! If I try to run, he'll only make the beating worse on me. You're helping it by running. It'll help me just to know that you're gonna be safe." He wiped her tears off of her cheeks with his thumbs. "Believe me, Okay?"  
  
Bulma stared at him, still crying. "But Vegeta, I can't live with myself knowing that I hurt you—"  
  
All of the sudden, they heard a British accent say, 'VEGETA!'  
  
Both of their heads snapped up.  
  
"SEE!" He screamed at her. "What if he sees you? Then, not only will he beat me but he'll kill you!" He started trying to push her away, but she stood her ground. Vegeta was horrified when he saw Zarbon burst through the trees, with a mad look on his green face. Vegeta gulped. "Uh—Hi—"  
  
"Don't give me that, Lord Freeza is standing on his head!" Zarbon said.  
  
*Why isn't he inquiring about Bulma? * Vegeta thought. When he looked over where Bulma had been standing, she was gone. She had run! Vegeta smiled.  
  
"I don't possibly see what you're so happy about. Lord Freeza is going to beat the hell out of you." Zarbon said. "But, I'm going to get to you first." He slapped Vegeta across the face, making Vegeta's head go flying to the side and stay there.  
  
Vegeta clapped a hand to his cheek. "I'm damn right tired of this!" He cursed, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth. "You're going to pay this time!" He kicked Zarbon in the stomach as hard as he could. He was so mad that he couldn't see straight!  
  
Zarbon was surprised. After twenty years, Vegeta had the nerve to throw blows back at him! Zarbon smirked. "Vegeta, that was not smart." He said, stepping forward. "Not smart at all."  
  
Before Vegeta could react he was in a chokehold by Zarbon.  
  
"I'm going to take you back to Lord Freeza, and if I have anymore lip out of you than you're dead, you hear me?" Zarbon asked. He lit a ki blast up in his hand. "And I'm sure that Lord Freeza wouldn't mind if I killed you, because I think that's what he was going to do."  
  
Vegeta didn't try to fight very much anymore. "Just take me back to Master Freeza." He ordered.  
  
Zarbon smiled. "All in good time. But let me warn you . . . you'll have to tell him what you were doing here out in the woods instead of looking for Dragonballs." He then flew off, with Vegeta.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Bulma had been watching from afar behind a tree. She was crying, and had wanted so badly to go after them. But she knew there was no point. Vegeta would just be even more miserable if she were to die, like he had said. So she had just sat there and watched. *How could someone live like that? How could someone let that happen to them? * She thought, beginning to cry even harder.  
  
But what could she do about it, a weakling human girl that didn't know how to fight?  
  
*Goku. * She thought, bringing a smile to her face. She wiped the tears from her eyes. "Goku! Goku can help Vegeta!" She said, throwing the capsule to her flying machine and climbing inside.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Goku!" Bulma called when she got to her house.  
  
Goku immediately ran up to her to see if she was okay. "Where were you?" He asked. "We were so worried! I was afraid the Saiyan kidnapped you or something!" Before Goku could react, Bulma had grabbed him by the shoulders.  
  
"No, but it's about the Saiyan that I need to talk to you about!" Bulma screamed in Goku's face. "He needs help, he needs help—"  
  
"Whoa, Bulma, calm down! What do you mean?" Goku asked. By the look in her eyes she looked downright hysterical.  
  
"He needs help, Goku! He's in a bad situation! I was with him today, and—"  
  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa back up! Why were you with that Saiyan? Are you freaking crazy?" Goku asked. "You don't need to be fooling around with him. He's double-crossing!"  
  
"No he's not once you get to know him, Goku. Three people are abusing him. Three aliens, I mean, named Freeza, Zarbon, and Dodoria." Bulma said. "And you could help him get away, couldn't you?"  
  
Goku shrugged. "I don't know who these people are. I don't know if you're sane right now, either, so why don't you go and lay down? I'll bring you some ice water and then you can think about what you're saying." Goku said reassuringly. "The Bulma that I know would never fool around with that Saiyan."  
  
"But Goku . . . I fell in love with him."  
  
Goku froze stiff, taking in what she had just said. *Fell in love with him? Has she been taking drugs? * He thought. He turned around to face her. "What are you talking about?" He asked. "You must be temporarily insane, so I'll just go and get your parents." Goku started to walk away.  
  
Bulma reached out and grabbed his arm. "I am not insane, I know what I'm talking about, and I know that I love him. And the Goku that I know would not let someone die that I love so very much. Someone who loves me back." She said. "He's a good man, who needs help, and if you won't get him help, I'll get him help myself. He's beaten like a rag doll, Goku!" She screamed the very last sentence.  
  
Goku just blinked at her.  
  
"And . . . If you help him . . . He won't have a reason to be evil anymore. It's his master that makes him be evil." Bulma finished. She then walked up to Goku, starting to cry. "Please, Goku, help him."  
  
Goku stared at her even longer. *How could I help him? * He thought. *He . . . He's killed so many of our friends . . . Piccolo . . . Yamcha . . . Tien . . . But Bulma loves him . . . *  
  
"Please." Bulma whispered once more.  
  
Goku stared at her a while longer before slowly shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Bulma, But I can't. I can't help him; he's killed too many people for me to help him. He's a murderer, he deserves what he gets." He said this sternly. "If you were dense enough to fall in love with him . . . that's your problem."  
  
Bulma barely knew what she was doing when she slapped him across his face so hard that it rocked to the side.  
  
Goku brought a hand up to his face. "Bulma, now . . ."  
  
"I don't want to hear your excuses. You're a selfish man, Goku! Yes, he's made a couple of mistakes; I'll admit that. But he risked his life for ME, Goku! He's saved my life twice, and I'll help him by myself. I don't need you." Bulma then turned her nose up in the air and walked off the other direction. *I'll go out tonight, and I'll see him . . . and I'll save him. * She thought. *Vegeta and I both will get rid of Freeza. *  
  
Thinking this, she packed a couple blankets and pillows to go camping outside close to the space ship so she could see him.  
  
* * * * *  
  
After a terrible beating, Vegeta lay on his cot bleeding all over the place, bleeding profusely. The pain was horrible; so horrible that it took all of his will power not to cry.  
  
This time, it had been all three of them. Freeza, Zarbon AND Dodoria. They all three had been beating the hell out of him, asking for an answer. But he hadn't given it to them to save Bulma. He refused, and now he was paying the price. Bleeding out his ears, eyes, mouth . . . everywhere. But at least he had saved Bulma from this. If they would have caught Bulma with him they would have taken her prisoner or killed her. Both were horrible ways to die, and Vegeta had stopped that from happening.  
  
As Vegeta was sitting there and thinking about what Bulma was doing just then and how he'd ever get to see her again, Freeza walked into his quarters without even knocking. "You're pathetic, Vegeta." He growled.  
  
Vegeta just lay there, bleeding.  
  
"I ought to kill you."  
  
A single tear slipped from Vegeta's eye. Before he could help himself he was begging helplessly for mercy. "Please, PLEASE, no more, don't beat me anymore!" He begged. "I'm already bad enough . . . it's taking all that I can to talk to you right now . . ." He heard Freeza's icy chuckle again. Freeza was laughing at his pain.  
  
"Vegeta, I come here having no intention on beating you anymore. You've had enough, don't you think?" He asked, brushing his long tail under Vegeta's chin affectionately.  
  
"With all due respect, master . . . why are you in here then?"  
  
That icy chuckle again.  
  
"Did you ever think that maybe instead of hitting you I wanted to talk to you about something? A man to man chat, what do you say to that?" Freeza asked, not exactly in a nice tone. His tone was taunting, as if anything could set him off and make him kill Vegeta.  
  
"But . . . I know what you're here to talk to me about." Vegeta moaned. "And it's something that I can't answer. You're going to ask me why I wasn't looking for a Dragonball . . . and I still refuse to tell you. You can kill me if you want to."  
  
Freeza scowled at Vegeta. *That little worm. * He thought.  
  
"No, what I was going to tell you is this. You aren't aloud out of this ship anymore except for with Zarbon or Dodoria in close range. It's nighttime, yes, but you may not sleep outside today. You may never sleep outside again. You're to stay in here, do you understand me?" Freeza demanded.  
  
Vegeta felt a lump in his throat. He was about to cry.  
  
"Yes, Master . . ." He moaned. *No more outside means no more . . . Bulma. * He thought. He hoped Freeza would leave before he started to sob helplessly. But, when he was about to do this, he got an idea.  
  
"Okay, Vegeta, that's all I wanted to say." Freeza sneered. "I'll leave you alone now."  
  
He then left the room, giving Vegeta enough time to put his plan into place.  
  
Vegeta sat up and admired the thick puddle of blood his body had made around the cot. He smirked. *Yes . . . There's enough here. * He thought. He went over to the blood and took one of his gloves off, so the blood wouldn't bead up. He then stuck his hand in it and rubbed it around, around and around, grimacing as his stomach churned and protested at having his hand in blood.  
  
When he had his hand soaked in the desired amount of blood he stood up and went to the tiny window. He took his bloody hand and made a handprint in the top right corner of the window, just to catch Bulma's attention. He then took his finger and wrote this message below that with the blood, 'I'M HERE.'  
  
Vegeta stood back satisfied with his work. *She's got to see that, she just has too. * He thought hopefully. *And she'll help me, like she promised she would. * He then sat down below the window and waited for Bulma.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Later in the night, Bulma woke up at her watch alarm. She was camping out in the desert not very far from Freeza's space ship, where her Vegeta was. She just hoped that he was outside or somewhere she could see him, because she didn't want to have to go inside unless she absolutely had to. But she would if that was the only way to see her lover.  
  
*It's go time. * She thought, standing up and packing her sleeping bag back up into a roll. She put it on her back and threw the capsule to her flying machine. It popped out and she climbed inside.  
  
When she reached Freeza's ship, she sadly did not see a sign of Vegeta. Fear immediately hopped into Bulma's throat at the thought of going inside of the ship. {Sarah loves clay Aiken!} *I don't want to go in there, what if I get captured? * She thought. But all of that left her mind when she thought about Vegeta, and what might be happening to him inside of that ship. *I'm going to. For Vegeta. * She thought.  
  
She landed her flying machine and slowly got out. "Vegeta? Are you out here?" She called. Hopefully, he was somewhere around and with his sensitive ears could hear her. But Vegeta didn't come rushing at her calls.  
  
"Please don't be in there . . . And more than that, please don't be hurt." Bulma said outloud to herself. She ran a full circle around the ship before realizing that Vegeta just wasn't anywhere outside.  
  
After a while of sitting and sulking, she happened to glance up and notice a message on the window, a message written in something crimson. Like blood. But, Bulma couldn't read it because of how high up the message was. She was about to turn away and go back to her ship, but then she thought about Vegeta. What if it was his message, begging for her help? She sucked her ship back up into the capsule, and then threw the capsule again at the window so that it formed right beneath the window, where she could climb up it and read the message.  
  
After a lot of climbing, Bulma finally got high enough to read the message. She figured it was Vegeta's writing, because why would it be written in blood? He had gotten beaten, and she was quite sure of it. Her Vegeta had been beaten again.  
  
Bulma swallowed up her tears and stood tiptoed on the flying machine. She looked into the window and there, huddled up and frightened, was Vegeta. But he was so bloody and beaten up that he was hardly recognizable. Bulma sobbed very loud, so loud it caused Vegeta to perk up.  
  
"Bulma?" Vegeta muttered. He looked around for her, before finally remembering the message he'd written on the window for her to find. He smiled a little bit when he looked up and saw her crying face in the glass, pounding on it and asking for him to wake up.  
  
He quickly flew up to the glass. "Bulma . . . I'm sorry I wasn't outside! Freeza banned me from ever going outside except for with Zarbon and Dodoria!" He said, almost sobbing himself at the sight of Bulma's crying face. "You don't have to cry about it, Bulma . . . We'll find some way to get this glass out so I can come out there with you, there are just probably people guarding the door so I don't get out."  
  
Bulma sucked up her tears. "They beat you again!" She sobbed some more. "But this time worse than ever, why can't they ever leave you alone?"  
  
Vegeta wiped his eyes. "Never mind that now. Just . . . is there any way out there to open the window? I can see Freeza not putting a way in here, but he might have out there. I'm not gonna break the window because then Freeza would know I was out."  
  
Bulma slightly smiled as she searched the window pane for a button or latch, running her hands over it and getting them dusty and cut up. Finally, her hand came across a little latch on the windowpane.  
  
"I found something Vegeta!" She exclaimed.  
  
"That's nice! Now OPEN IT!" Vegeta said sarcastically.  
  
"Sorry." Bulma muttered, trying to lift the latch. She tried with all of her brute force, but she couldn't unlock it. "The God Damned thing won't unlock, Vegeta! It's all rusty or something." She said. She banged on it with her fist, even chewed on it with her teeth. But the latch just wouldn't give in to her will power. She grew frustrated and started to cry again. "Oh, Vegeta, it's stuck!"  
  
Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Try harder before someone sees you!" He demanded. "If someone were to see you, I couldn't help because they've got me locked up in here!"  
  
Bulma grabbed her pocketknife and began to pry at the metal, rusty latch. "Come on, you son of a bitch! Open!" She cursed.  
  
Vegeta waited somewhat patiently inside his room, which now reeked the copper smell of blood. He was praying that it would open up somehow. "Bulma, hurry, please! Zarbon or someone's lobule to hear me talking and come in here!"  
  
"Then quit talking silly!" Bulma pried at the latch some more. She tried everything that she could possibly try on the latch, but it would not open. Her tears grew louder and more frustrated. "Vegeta, there's no way to get you out but to break the window!"  
  
Vegeta growled. "TRY HARDER!" He screamed.  
  
Bulma started to try harder and eventually, she felt the latch give under the pocketknife and go up. A slow smile broke across her face.  
  
"Now open it, please, hurry!" Vegeta shouted.  
  
Bulma put her hands on the edge of the window and tried to lift it up. It slowly slid up, with a squeaky noise that made Vegeta cover his ears. Finally, the window was all the way up. Even though the window was on the small size she thought that maybe Vegeta could go through. After all, he was a small man.  
  
Vegeta stepped back a couple of feet and then flew at the window as fast and as hard as he could. He went through; but not without accidentally bashing his head on the windowpane. He grabbed Bulma off of the top of the flying machine and flew her to the ground, where he started to kiss her.  
  
Bulma kissed him back. She could taste the blood all over his face and neck, and felt the deep cuts and wounds with her tongue. But she didn't care. He was Vegeta, and she would have eaten motor oil for him.  
  
"Vegeta . . . I tried to get you some help." She told him as they broke away from each other's kiss. "I tried to get you some help from Goku, but he said he wouldn't. He said you've killed too many for him to help you, and he's so selfish—"  
  
Vegeta gave her a kiss to shut her up. He tried to hide the disappointment in his voice as he spoke. "That's Okay. I'll . . . WE'LL . . . find a way to get me out of here. But for now . . . it's better like this."  
  
"What do you mean it's better like this? You're bleeding horribly!" Bulma said, pointing out the blood all over her body and in her hair from snuggling on him. "You can't go on like this. You just can't, nobody should have to live like this. I'LL help you get away from Freeza by myself. You and I will get you away together."  
  
Vegeta smirked. "That's gallant, woman, but I think we should lay off for now. Let's go somewhere else before Zarbon or Dodoria sees me out here." He flew off with Bulma, carrying her to someplace where he was sure Zarbon or Dodoria couldn't see them.  
  
Yo! Next chapter, Zarbon discovers that Vegeta has left his room, and also discovers the flying machine up against the wall, and knows automatically whose it is, which means he knows that Vegeta didn't kill Bulma! Thankfully, Freeza won't believe him though!  
Zarbon finds the general place where Vegeta is at, but Vegeta surpresses his ki and Bulma and he hide from Zarbon . . . and I won't tell you anymore! You'll have to wait to find out!  
  
-Luv, luvssaintbernards 


	7. Vegeta gets captured

Chapter the seventh  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball Z or any other trademarked materials in this fanfiction.  
  
Unusually, Zarbon did not hear the noise of Vegeta's shower, or his snoring, or the toilet . . . anything like that for the longest time. And Vegeta was hardly ever quiet like that. He usually snored very badly.  
  
"Dodoria, I think we should go and check on Vegeta." Zarbon told his partner. "To make sure that he didn't escape somehow. I haven't heard him all night, and he usually makes a lot of noise."  
  
"Fine, let's go get the keys from Master Freeza." Dodoria said. But, when they got there, the answer they got from Freeza was surprising.  
  
"Leave Vegeta alone for now, stop tattling on him so much. He's not a little boy anymore; of course he's going to talk back to you. I don't care the names he called you; if there is nothing physical you might as well leave him alone." Freeza said.  
  
"But this is not about Vegeta assaulting me." Zarbon said. "I need the key to his room, please, Lord Freeza."  
  
Freeza shook his head. "No. First, you tell me why. Why would you need the key to Vegeta's room? The whole point of me locking him in there was so that he wouldn't get into trouble anymore. He couldn't have possibly gotten into any trouble locked up in that room." He pointed towards the doorway. "Now go away."  
  
Zarbon was steamed. Freeza usually listened to him more than this, but he wouldn't dare talk back snide to him. He may not get beaten, but something bad would surely happen to him. "But . . . Lord Freeza . . . I think he may have escaped that room!"  
  
For a minute, things were silent between Zarbon and Freeza, until Freeza laughed at him.  
  
"Zarbon, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. There's no way Vegeta could escape from that room. He's a smart boy don't you know that? He'd know better than to shatter the window in order to escape." Freeza explained. "And there's no other way. I have people guarding all inside of this ship to keep him from escaping. There's people outside his door, for Christ's sake!"  
  
"Then they're obviously not doing their job very well, Lord Freeza. Dodoria and I don't hear any noises coming from Vegeta's room. If they were good guards they'd take a peek." Zarbon argued.  
  
Freeza rolled his eyes. "Fine, here's the key." He said, throwing it to them. "Now leave me alone. I don't want to hear anymore out of you two tonight." It was obvious that Freeza really didn't think Vegeta was gone, but he was wrong.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Zarbon and Dodoria walked up to Vegeta's door, where the guards were.  
  
"Excuse me, what do you think you're doing?" One of the guards asked Zarbon as he shoved the key inside of the keyhole.  
  
"That's none of your business to question me. You have no power." Zarbon said. "So shut up before I kill you."  
  
The guard became silent.  
  
Zarbon opened the door to Vegeta's dark room and scanned it with his eyes. "Vegeta, you ass, get out here right now if you're in there." He called.  
  
There was no answer from the saiyan, not even the sound of raspy breathing.  
  
"Vegeta? HELLLO . . ." He said.  
  
Still no answer.  
  
Zarbon and Dodoria walked farther inside. "I don't hear any shower water running . . ." Dodoria said. "And Vegeta would answer us usually. He wouldn't want to be beaten like that again."  
  
Zarbon ran over to the cot and pulled the sheets up. The only thing present was a huge bloodstain on the white sheets. "He's not here!" He exclaimed. "But how did he—"  
  
Zarbon glared up at the window and noticed that it was opened. "No . . ." He said. He flew up to the window. "How did he open it? The latch was from the outside, there was no way he could have opened it without breaking it in the least little bit!"  
  
Dodoria shrugged. "Beats me. Someone must have let him out." He said. "But . . . who?"  
  
They both exchanged glances.  
  
"Let's check outside." Zarbon said.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Vegeta dragged Bulma inside of the canyon, into the place where he'd hidden his food in the first place. "This place is safe, I think." He said. "I had my food hidden here . . . at least until you ate it."  
  
Bulma sat down. "Hm, sure is . . . homey." She said sarcastically. "By the way, sorry that I ate your food. I didn't know about your situation!"  
  
"There's no need for apologies. Right now we just need to find someplace where we can be safe together." Vegeta said, sticking his head out a little bit to see if anyone was around. When he was satisfied, he pulled himself back inside and sighed deeply. "I'm getting so tired of this . . ." He mumbled. "Twenty years of having to look behind my back over everything . . ."  
  
"Don't worry, Vegeta. I'll find someone to help you get out of here." Bulma reassured as she leaned over and hugged Vegeta by pressing her cheek against his chest. "Nobody will ever hurt you again."  
  
Vegeta smirked and stroked her hair slowly. "Zarbon will be out soon. He's always up my butt." He muttered. "Unless I'm lucky and he doesn't find out that I'm gone."  
  
Bulma lifted up and grabbed some sandwiches out of her pack. "I brought you some food, because I figured that Freeza doesn't give you very much food." She said. "I'll bring you some food every day, okay?"  
  
Vegeta smirked. "Won't be necessary once I get out of here." He then leaned forward and looked out the mouth of the cave to make sure that nobody was out there now.  
  
Bulma pulled him back in. "Stop doing that, stupid. Nobody will see us." She then kissed him on his cheek and gave him his food, fondly watching her lover eat.  
  
* * * * *  
  
As Zarbon and Dodoria made it outside the first thing that they noticed was the huge flying machine parked underneath the window.  
  
"I've seen this before." Dodoria said plainly.  
  
"Yes, so have I." Zarbon remarked. "It was that night that we were capturing that blue-headed girl, remember? This was her flying machine." He said. "Which means that . . . Vegeta didn't kill her."  
  
Dodoria climbed up on top of the flying machine and to the window, the window that Bulma had opened. "This explains why is was parked under the window. So the little bimbo could open it. She used her pocket knife." He threw Zarbon the pocketknife, being sure to suppress the blade first. "But why would she want to let Vegeta out unless she knew him?"  
  
Zarbon studied the pocketknife carefully. "I don't know . . . but then again, that night I had her prisoner and Vegeta came up . . . she asked him to save her. She said, 'Vegeta, please save me, please please please . . .' like they knew each other. I didn't pay attention to that until just now, you know?"  
  
Dodoria nodded. "They do know each other but I would think not in a friendly way. He stole the Dragonball from her!"  
  
"Or did she give it to him?"  
  
They were both silent for a long time, thinking about the subject of Bulma and Vegeta.  
  
"They couldn't be an object, could they?" Zarbon asked. "Vegeta's not the type to take humans for a lover. He's never had a lover in his life!" He then realized how stupid he sounded. "What am I saying? Vegeta's way too prideful to accept a lover. It just has to be something else!"  
  
There was another awkward silence.  
  
"We should go and tell Lord Freeza. Freeza will know what to do." Zarbon said, starting to walk off to get Freeza. But Dodoria grabbed his arm and stopped him.  
  
"Wait! Before we jump to conclusions, let's wait until Vegeta gets back and . . . observe him. Look and see who brings him back, and who locks the window behind him. Then, we can go into Vegeta's room and get him, lock him in the dungeon so he can't get out, then get whoever let him out." Dodoria said. "That's the sure fire way to catch the person whose been doing this."  
  
Zarbon gulped. "I hate that brat so much . . ." He mumbled, heading back inside the ship.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Vegeta, how long do you plan on staying out with me tonight?" Bulma asked her lover, scooting closer to him as if to protect him from any harm. She knew that Zarbon and Dodoria would probably be out soon looking for him and she didn't want him to be beaten again. Heck, if they found him out, it would probably be their last straw. They'd probably kill him!  
  
Vegeta shoved the last of one of the sandwiches in his mouth. "I actually hadn't planned on it at all. I just really wanted to see you after I got beaten, so I wrote you that message on the window." He then stopped and looked at the ground, as if reflecting on something.  
  
"What's the matter?" Bulma inquired.  
  
Vegeta coughed into his hand then rubbed a hand through his now greasy hair. "This is dangerous." He said. "Dangerous for you. Do you know what they'd do to you if they were to find us together? I'm not worried about what they'd do to me; but I am to you. You don't want what happened to me when I was a child to happen to you. I don't want it, either. I want you to be safe."  
  
Bulma was slowly nodding to everything that he said.  
  
"If it gets too dangerous and they start getting on our tracks, Bulma . . . We may have to stop seeing each other." Vegeta concluded.  
  
Tears immediately jumped to Bulma's blue eyes. *Is he crazy? I know that he loves me, and I love him, and I can understand where he's coming from . . . But stop seeing each other? * She thought. Before she could stop herself she had grabbed Vegeta by the shoulders.  
  
"We can't stop seeing each other, Vegeta!" She exclaimed, pulling in and kissing him. After she broke the kiss, she rested her forehead against his. "Not ever. I thought we said we would fight Freeza until the end? Remember what we said? Huh?"  
  
Vegeta grabbed her, and even though his pride told him no, he hugged her. "Bulma, I said maybe! I said if they start getting on our tracks. If they start wondering if we're an item." He pushed Bulma away from him. "It would be best for the both of us. Less dangerous."  
  
Bulma stared at Vegeta for a second. "I don't care how dangerous things get. I vowed I'd get you help, and that's what I'll do." Bulma said in a firm tone. "I will. You won't have to live like this forever." So saying this, she grabbed him and hugged him, trying not to start bawling into his neck like a little baby. "I want to see you, I want you to be safe, I want to see you just ONCE without bruises all over your face—" She sloppily kissed his cheek. "And when this is all over, you'll live with me. You'll live with me and my parents, and you'll be safe—"  
  
Vegeta stood up the best that he could inside the tiny little cave. "Don't think naïve thoughts, woman." He stated. "It's best not to dream in situations like this."  
  
Bulma was at a loss of words as he poked his head out of the cave, searching around for Zarbon or Dodoria. "It'd be easier on you if you'd stop worrying so much." She whispered.  
  
Vegeta backed up and sat back down. "I have to watch my back. I'm sure that if I get caught one more time, it's my last strike. I'll either be killed, or worse, tortured and put in the dungeon until I die."  
  
Bulma wiped tears from her eyes. "That's horrible." She mumbled.  
  
"It's true, though. They've done it before, but they didn't kill me. Just almost."  
  
Bulma shook her head. *Why doesn't he ever fight back? * She thought. *He's a mighty Saiyan, the PRINCE of them all . . . how could he let himself get into a situation like this? *  
  
"Maybe we should get you back to the ship Vegeta. I'm too scared that you'll get discovered." Bulma suggested. "We shouldn't have went out tonight. We should have waited until tomorrow to come out." She walked out of the cave and jerked him out by the hand. "Come on. We're going back."  
  
Vegeta yanked his hand away and stepped back a couple of steps. "Foolish woman, what are you doing!? Get back into that cave before you are seen!" He ordered. "Now!"  
  
Bulma stood there. "Last time I ran when Zarbon came . . . this time I won't. This time I'm taking it with you if we're discovered. Dying with you is better than dying without."  
  
Vegeta looked at her for a couple of seconds before turning the opposite direction of Bulma and crossing his arms, twitching his tail in an annoyed manner. "Look, woman—You sure are stubborn." He growled.  
  
Bulma came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Turn around, Vegeta." She demanded in a soft voice.  
  
Vegeta did as he was told and found himself engulfed in her arms. He saw her lean forward into him and rest her cheek on his chest, hugging him around his waist as tight as she could. "You're brave." He breathed. He then put his own arms around her too, and squeezed. "And that's what I like about you." He whispered that part in her ear, in kind of a firm tone.  
  
Bulma kissed him on the side of the face. "I don't ever want to have to let you go. I wish that you could just stay with me . . . always . . ." She said.  
  
Vegeta smirked a little bit. *Yeah, I wish I could get away from here, too. * Vegeta thought as he gave her one last squeeze and then released her. "This is impossible. We shouldn't even speak of such things in which will never be true." He turned away from Bulma and looked at the moon. "It'll be forever until I get away from Freeza. Not even my father could get me away . . . And that's why he was a fool."  
  
Bulma stared firmly at Vegeta as he lumbered back inside the cave and plopped down on his butt, where he sighed deeply and closed his eyes.  
  
"We really need to get you back. You're scaring me." Bulma said.  
  
Vegeta opened one eye.  
  
"And . . . and tomorrow, maybe I could get Goku to come and help you." Bulma said. Her voice trembled, for she knew what Vegeta's reaction would be. She knew that he would not accept Goku's help.  
  
"No . . . Not Kakarott. I'd rather die than . . ." He growled.  
  
"Vegeta, you don't have much of a choice! Can't you ever think about your life above your birthrights? Huh?!" Bulma demanded.  
  
Vegeta just stared at her with that one eye open, wondering whether coming out with this woman was really worth it. He finally closed the one eye again. *Easy for you to say, woman. * He thought.  
  
Bulma crawled back inside the cave with Vegeta and leaned up against him, feeling his heart beat and his chest rise and fall with each breath. She felt his tail brush affectionately against her thigh, and she knew the indecent things he was thinking. She snuggled in closer to him and kissed his chest, which left the taste of blood in her mouth.  
  
Vegeta looked down at her and frowned a little bit.  
  
Bulma caught the frown on her lover's face and brought her hand up, rubbing at the frown lines on his brow as if trying to rub them away. "Don't be mad, and don't be worried." She whispered to him, caressing his cheek with her fingers. "Just be happy to be here right now, and happy that we haven't been caught yet."  
  
Vegeta's frown turned into a small smirk as he leaned his head back against his arms and let Bulma hug him all up. Something in his mind kept telling him that he should get away from her before something bad was to happen, but . . . He didn't think he could live without her. Of course he'd only known her for three or four days; but he'd already grown attached to the blue-haired beauty's company. She seemed to make his pain fade away every time she came around.  
  
They fell asleep in each other's arms that night, not noticing it get deeper and deeper into the night, and not knowing that Zarbon and Dodoria were on Vegeta's tracks already.  
  
* * * * *  
  
The first thing Vegeta noticed when he woke up was that it was still nighttime, and he hadn't been sleeping very long. His limbs were not as stiff as they usually got when he'd been sleeping sitting up for a long time.  
  
He yawned, and noticed that the stale air of his cell was not present. Instead it was the warm, moist outside air, that teased his senses and made him want to dance, scream, and yell—just be happy. But being happy was way out of Vegeta's league.  
  
He also couldn't help but notice that every time he inhaled he got a whiff of the most beautiful scent he'd ever smelled in his life; the scent of the woman. The Bulma woman. He smiled a little bit at her presence. "Wake up woman." He whispered firmly.  
  
Bulma didn't even stir. Her huge blue eyes just stayed firmly closed; her balloony chest heaved evenly up and down.  
  
Vegeta shook her a little bit. "You have to wake up. I have to get back to the ship and I don't want to leave you here asleep." Vegeta said. "So get up."  
  
Bulma's huge eyes slowly fluttered open, and she found herself staring straight into the handsome prince of the Saiyan's face. She smiled at him. "Good morning . . . I mean night. I guess we didn't sleep all night, huh?"  
  
Vegeta didn't answer. Instead he gently pushed her off and crawled out of the cave where he stood up and looked at the moon.  
  
Bulma got up and rubbed her eyes. "What's the matter?" She asked, coming up behind him and embracing him in a huge hug. She squeezed him and snuggled her face into his rubbery saiyan armor.  
  
Vegeta averted his pupils back toward her. "Let's go back to the ship. I can't believe that Zarbon or Dodoria haven't come looking for me yet."  
  
Bulma looked at her watch and her eyes almost bugged right out of her head. "Oh Jesus! We've been asleep for three hours!" She said, alarmed. "And it's all because of me! I shouldn't have let you go to sleep, I'm so stupid—"  
  
Vegeta placed a finger on her lips. "Shh. be quiet. We don't want anyone to hear us, do we?"  
  
Bulma just stared at him as he gently removed his finger from her lips and stared up at the sky. Then, before she could even react, he had grabbed her and picked her up against him. Bulma threw an arm around his shoulders and clung on tight. "But Vegeta, I don't want this night to ever stop . . ." She whimpered. She was now close to tears. "I want to stay here, and we can go to sleep in each other's arms again!"  
  
Vegeta started to slowly fly. "Too dangerous for that now. Stupid me, I should have never went to sleep. I can't believe this! What if they catch me?" He was talking more to himself than he was to Bulma. He could feel Bulma hugging him tight as she buried her face into his strong chest and cried. "Stop crying. It makes me feel stupid." Vegeta fibbed, when it really made him feel sad for her. But he didn't want to admit it. He wanted to stay with her too; but he knew that he couldn't.  
  
"Oh, Vegeta . . . when can we see each other again?" She asked. "I want it to be soon!"  
  
Vegeta smirked and bumped her beneath her chin affectionately. "It will be soon. Tomorrow night, come back to the ship and I'll try to come out in some way. Okay? Tomorrow night is not that long."  
  
"It is to me!"  
  
Vegeta just ignored what Bulma said as he touched down in front of the space ship, and slowly lowered her down to the ground.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Zarbon and Dodoria caught sight of Vegeta landing In front of the ship with the female in his arms. They were both at a complete loss of words as they watched the woman hug Vegeta around his neck, and whisper something into his ear. And it looked like she was crying.  
  
"That little bastard . . . "Zarbon growled, making sure it was not loud enough for the Saiyan to hear. "He's . . . He's got that woman letting him out!"  
  
He was about to get up and charge after Vegeta and Bulma, but Dodoria stopped him.  
  
"Wait. Let's see where this goes." He demanded Zarbon. "Maybe it's nothing serious."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Vegeta . . . tomorrow night at ten, okay?" Bulma whispered into Vegeta's ear with tears pouring down her face. "I'll come here tomorrow at ten and pick you up, and we'll go somewhere special."  
  
Vegeta hugged Bulma and kissed her on the cheek. "Sure. As long as Freeza doesn't get onto me or something. If Freeza does, then I probably won't be able to come out. But look for a sign, Bulma. And if there's not a sign of my being here and alive . . ." He didn't finish the rest of his sentence.  
  
Bulma broke away from his hug and started to back away. "Go now. I don't want them to find out." She ordered.  
  
Vegeta smirked a little bit and then gave a meek wave. "G'bye." He said. He started to fly up toward his window, but Bulma grabbed his foot. Vegeta painfully fell to the ground.  
  
"What is it, woman?" He asked. He tried to hide the annoyance in his tone.  
  
"I thought I heard something!" Bulma said. "I thought I heard someone rustle in the bushes or the trees over there."  
  
Vegeta stared back at her for a second, then started to laugh. "That's stupid woman. If anyone was watching then they already would have come out, don't you think?" He asked. "We're completely safe. Now let go of my shoe."  
  
Bulma obeyed, and Vegeta was about to start flying again, when two unusual things happened. First he heard Bulma give out a high-pitched squeal; a squeal that was so loud it made his ears ache. He whipped his head around to stare at her but before he could get a good glance at her, there was a burst of pain as someone punched him in the stomach and grabbed him around the waist. He gagged up blood before realizing what had probably happened.  
  
He looked up into his captor's face and recognized Zarbon.  
  
His eyes bulged to the size of dinner plates. "N—No . . ." He stuttered.  
  
Zarbon gave an evil smirk at Vegeta. "Yes, yes." He said. "Looks like your little plan didn't work too well now did it?"  
  
Hearing Bulma scream again, Vegeta whipped his head over and saw that Dodoria had her grabbed around the waist as he himself was. She was screaming and bawling and thrashing her arms and legs. "EEEEKKK! VEGETA, NOOOO!" She tried to bite Dodoria in the arm. "LET HIM GO, YOU BASTARDS, LEAVE HIM ALONE AND LET HIM GO!"  
  
Vegeta started fighting Zarbon's arm. "Z-Zarbon, I can explain . . ." He felt Zarbon punch him in the gut, and he doubled over and crumpled up around Zarbon's arms, gasping for air like a beached fish. "Let . . . her . . . go . . ." He managed to choke out.  
  
He heard Bulma's screams and cries dwindle into shouts of rage as she fought Dodoria's arms. "Let him go!" She was screaming. Vegeta couldn't handle this; he knew that they'd kill Bulma before he could get to her.  
  
"Run, Bulma!" He shouted.  
  
Zarbon jerked him up. "Is BULMA her name? Well, don't worry, Vegeta, I'm sure we have a nice place in the dungeon for your little friend too." He said. "DODORIA! BRING HER INSIDE!"  
  
Dodoria began to drag Bulma inside, who was screaming, yelling, and slapping at him the whole time. "Release me!" She ordered. "Now! I'm warning you! Release me and let him go!"  
  
Vegeta started to struggle again. *I can't let this happen. I can't let her get taken prisoner, can't let her get taken away from her home and tortured . . . * So thinking this, he decided that he had to do something. And he had to act FAST. He started straining and trying to flip around in Zarbon's arms so that he could kick off with his feet.  
  
Zarbon was having a lot of trouble holding on to Vegeta now. "Stop squirming or I'll kill you!" He shouted.  
  
Vegeta heeded no warning. He turned around and implanted his feet in Zarbon's gut; sending him sprawling away and tumbling. His arms jerked free of around Vegeta. Vegeta had no time to celebrate his little bit of freedom, though. He still had Bulma to save.  
  
"Dodoria, let her go now." He ordered firmly. He looked into Bulma's watery eyes and realized that she was very scared right now; more scared for him than she was of herself.  
  
"LOOK OUT, VEGETA, ZARBON'S COMING BACK AT YOU—"  
  
When Bulma said this, Vegeta whirled around and implanted a foot in Zarbon's stomach, disabling him again. "Dodoria, let her GO. I won't fight anymore if you just let her go. We have no use for her, so please." He figured that Dodoria, being the big dumb ass that he was, might actually let her go at his bluff. But it didn't work.  
  
"That won't work on me Vegeta. We've already trusted your word with her once, and we won't make that mistake again. This time she's coming inside for good." Dodoria growled.  
  
Vegeta crossed his arms. "I'll warn you one more time. Let her go. Now." He ordered. "Or I'll come at you." He got in a fighting stance; ready to come at Dodoria.  
  
To Vegeta's surprise Dodoria did exactly as he had asked. "I guess you're the important one." He said, letting Bulma go and stepping towards Vegeta slowly. "You're not going to run, now, are you?"  
  
Vegeta shot a small look of worry at Bulma, then smirked. "I'll be Okay." He mouthed.  
  
Bulma didn't move. "NO!" She yelled, trying to dive forward and grab Vegeta. She saw Vegeta's face draw back into worry as Zarbon started to get up.  
  
"RUN, NOW! NOW NOW NOW!" Vegeta yelled.  
  
Bulma looked at Vegeta one more time, and burst into tears. "No, Vegeta—"  
  
"NOW!" Vegeta shot a ki blast at Bulma to make her run. His plan worked, too. She started to run away.  
  
"VEGETA, I'LL COME BACK FOR YOU! I WON'T LET THIS HAPPEN, I WON'T!" She yelled back at him, her voice cracking and breaking with each word.  
  
Vegeta was able to watch Bulma about two seconds more before Zarbon and Dodoria had him by the arms. But, surprisingly, Vegeta didn't fight. At least Bulma had gotten away.  
  
End of chappy seven  
  
In the next chapter Vegeta will get dragged inside of the ship, and gets locked up in the dungeon. Bulma can't live with herself and that night tries to get inside of the ship to save him. Please review, no major flames though!  
  
Luv, luvssaintbernards 


End file.
